Exodus
by Brandon Payne
Summary: Due to an inevitable apocalypse and a "streamlining" of Earth's population, the Special Area is to become the new world for the rest of the Human species. Though there is a moment when Youji and his Special Area friends need to go on a bit of a journey when one of their own screws something up.
1. Prologue

It has been six months since the Ginza Incident. Zorzal is dead, slain by Tyuule; who in turn was killed by him. His death brought an end to the rebellion and reunified the Empire. Pina Co Lada had been made Crown Princess. Everything seem to be going well.

Until astronomers back on Earth make a horrifying discovery: in less than two years, an asteroid nearly as big as the one that ended the dinosaurs will hit Earth. In short order, the United Nations gives Japan notice that in forty days the Gate will be under UN jurisdiction to evacuate as many Humans as possible before that asteroid's arrival.

But several days before the deadline arrives, reports of a flu-like illness circulate throughout Brazil. The illness is named, the Brazilian Flu, despite it not actually being influenza. The World Health Organization pays extra close attention to this new sickness because those who contracted it end up dead. Worse, it starts to spread abroad. Not wanting to take any unnecessary risks, and before the United Nations could officially take over, the Japanese government invokes a quarantine upon the Gate to prevent the disease from spreading over into the Special Area.

* * *

Youji, his team, along with Rory Mercury and Yao Ro Dushi, are sitting around in the pub. Shino takes a slug of her beer and sighs with frustration as she leans back. It is today that the quarantine was put into effect.

"I wish I could have gotten my parents and little sister through before then," Shino fretted. "I just hope they don't get this Brazilian Flu. I even pleaded with them to come as soon as possible. But nope, they wanted to spend as much time there as possible before the deadline came."

"It can't be helped because it was immediate," Youji said dourly.

"All we really can do is hope that this disease will burn itself out as soon as possible," Kurokawa Mari, the medic, said.

"And when do you think that will be?" Shino said dryly.

"Outbreaks of the disease were reported in a dozen other countries," Hitoshi Furuta, the private who went undercover as a chef in the palace, answered grimly. "It is estimated that there are now tens of millions of people infected with the Brazilian Flu. This means that tens of millions of people will die from it."

"That's not very reassuring," Shino growled with a glare.

"That is a strange disease though," Mari mused.

"Why should that disease be strange, Lady Mari?" Yao asked.

"Because it's spreading quickly as it quickly kills its host. In order for any disease to spread that quickly, it can't kill its host anytime soon. In fact, it should be burning itself out by now."

"Well, we did deal with a disease that infected and killed only Human females, then reanimated them," Rory noted.

"Sheesh, I hope it doesn't do that," Kurata Takeo, the cat-girl lover, said fretfully.

"So far there were no reports of any such thing," Youji assured him.

"And our world is not a mystical place," Mari said.

"But here's the thing that's really odd," Tomita Akira said, the tall soft-spoken member of the unit. "The Brazilian Flu just happened to appear after that asteroid was reported."

"And the timing couldn't have been any better," Kuwahara Souichirou, the Sergeant Major and Itami's second in command, said.

"What do you mean by that?" Rory asked.

"In seven days, the United Nations was to be taking command of the Gate, whether we liked it or not, to evacuate as many Humans as they could," Souichirou answered.

"What would this United Nations had done if you refused them?" Rory asked. "Declare war upon you?"

"Possibly" Souichirou answered grimly. "With that asteroid crashing into Earth in a couple of years, the people of Earth would have been desperate to get over here. And as more time passes, their desperation would have increased."

"That's certainly true," Rory said. "Desperate people make the most dangerous of people."

"So when this plague has run its course," Yao said, "will the rest of the Humans of your world be attempting to come here?"

"If the infrastructure remains up, there's no reason why they won't be coming," Youji said.

That is when a female member of the JSDF approaches them.

"General Hazama wants to see you all," the woman said. "Rory might even want to sit in on this one as well."

"Why?" Rory asked.

"Because a Demigoddess named Giselle is here with a message."

"What!" Rory exclaimed angrily as she rapidly stands and slams her hands on the table.

"She's in the briefing room," the woman said. "The rest of the personnel are being told to go listen."

"All right then, let's go hear what Giselle has to say," Youji said.

Everyone gets up and goes into headquarters and into the briefing room, of where a lot of JSDF personnel currently are. Up at the front is none other than Giselle, the shapely scantly clad dragonoid female who is an Apostle of Hardy, with her scythe in one hand and a black scroll with silver lining in the other. She has a look that is somewhere between a scowl and a bored expression. Rory glares at Giselle with pinpricked irises. Standing near Giselle is General Hazama.

"Now that we're all here," General Hazama said, causing everyone to go silent. "You can proceed to tell us Hardy's message."

Giselle puts her scythe down and straightens as she unfurls the black scroll with silver trim and then intones in a formal manner.

"Mistress Hardy, Goddess of the Underworld, reveals that the disease that is currently spreading all over your world had come from this world as it was created by her and placed within one of your people."

An uproar of shock reverberates through the room as everyone jumps up to their feet and babbles their surprise.

"Silence!" General Hazama bellowed, immediately getting it. Everyone sits back down. The General turns to Giselle with a contemptuous expression. "What are you talking about? That disease started in a country back in our world!"

"So you believe," Giselle sneered, then raised the scroll once again. "Mistress Hardy learned that one of your soldiers was going to travel abroad back in your world. So she infected him with her disease, of which she had designed to lie dormant for two days before awakening to make him a carrier so that he could infect others to make them carriers, all over the next thirty days. Diseases may go out of our world, but they cannot enter into our world. The Gate makes certain of that. So when he returned here, it was destroyed within him when he passed through the Gate."

"M-Me?!" A JSDF man gasped with a look of horror as he shot up out of his seat. "Sh-She in-infected m-me?!"

"So when it finally awoke to make him a carrier, he was no doubt over in that country. Anyone in his presence got infected and they in turn infected others, making them carriers over the next thirty days," Giselle continued. "And now, all of the Humans in your homeworld are infected."

Everyone around gapes with profound horror as their eyes are wide and irises shrunken and shimmering.

"W-Why?!" General Hazama rasped as he faced Giselle, struggling to contain his rage.

"Because Mistress learned of the meteor that is going to ravage your world," Giselle answered. "And since all of your kind cannot come here due to your overwhelming numbers, those who manage to survive it may. Mistress Hardy has even deduced that there will not be enough survivors throughout your world to match the population of Belnargo. Which, excluding its pilgrims, has a population of roughly fifty thousand people."

Everyone gapes with shock.

"That is all of her message," Giselle said, then lays the scroll down on a podium and picks up her scythe. "So I will be taking my leave."

Giselle walks out of the room, leaving a stunned audience to mentally digest the revelation of that disease's origin.

"So," Yao ventured absently-mindedly, "So . . . Hardy took pity on the Human world . . . and . . . and none on my people?!" Her voice ending in outrage.

"That . . . explains a lot," Shino said in a sheepish tone of shock with that pie-eyed shrunken iris expression. "It . . . explains the appearance of that plague after that asteroid was revealed."

"I . . . I really don't know what more to say about it," Youji snickered grimly. "Hardy caused that disease?! And all to save our lives?!"

"Hardy's going to gain a lot of worshippers after this," Rory rasped with a sigh.

"General," Youji asked as he stands. "What do we do now?"

General Hazama looks at Youji for a moment.

"We carry on as we currently do," he finally answered in a solumn tone. "At least we now know that Hardy's plague will burn itself out in a month's time."

A collective groan arises throughout the room.

"A month!" Shino rasped.

"What about saving whoever we can from the other side?!" Mari exclaimed as she jumps up with an eager expression. "You heard what Giselle revealed! Diseases cannot pass into this world! So why don't we go back to Japan and rescue as many people as possible so that they will be cured when they pass through the Gate?!"

"Yes!" Shino stated eagerly as she shoots up out of her chair with the thought of her mother, father, and sister over here.

"Need I remind you of what we did in order to ensure that the quaratine is strictly observed," General Hazama said sarcastically.

"The time lock!" Shino gasped with a thousand yard stare.

In an effort to insure that there would be no temptation to violate the quarantine, the JSDF put a time lock on the dome. It was set for a month and cannot be opened until the set time is up. Any attempt to destroy it would only seal the dome shut. And it is a very strong dome.

The women sigh as they sit back down.

"Mom, dad, Nanami," Shino sighed despondently with lowered head and shimmering eyes.

"Risa," Youji said.

"It looks like we will have to wait until that time lock is up," Takeo said.

"It's going to be a long wait," Youji said.

* * *

 **Note:**

 **This was inspired by Gate: Burn the Sky by Whitethorn23**.


	2. Chapter 1

**One month later**

The Ginza District is abnormally silent, just like the rest of Tokyo, just like the rest of Japan.

Just like the rest of Earth.

That silence is broken by the ringing of metal and whirring that echoes off of the buildings. The large doors of the white dome slowly slide open to reveal the Gate in all of its big white Romanesque glory.

The Third Recon Unit stands there facing the Ginza District with determined expressions. With them are Lelei, Tuka, Rory, Yao, and Arpeggio.

"Wow! What huge buildings!" Arpeggio exclaimed as she stares around pie eyed with pinpricked irises. "There must be a lot of people living here!"

"Don't you mean, must have?" Youji answered grimly.

"Hello! Hello! Is anyone alive out there?!" Kurata shouted.

But only his rapidly fading echo was to be heard . . . and then nothing.

"It's so quiet," Shino said while wincing with unease as she looks around. "I don't think anyone is still alive."

"I don't sense anyone near here," Yao said, given her ability to sense the presence of others.

"It looks like Hardy's Plague really did its work," Mari said. Since the origins of the disease had been discovered, it has since been called that name.

"Come on," Youji said as he begins walking.

The group walk out. The abnormal silence feels oppressive and they look around as if wanting to see survivors up in the windows of the buildings.

Mari sniffs the air. "There's no stink that I was expecting."

"I know what you mean," Youji said. "I think it has to do with the people having kept their windows closed."

They arrive at the partition gate marking the porched off processing area. Beyond it is another matching gate, with two armored personnel carriers just outside blocking it off.

"How're we going to get through them, father?" Tuka asked.

"Should we blast them down?" Yao suggested.

"No, we should keep them intact," Youji said.

"Leave it to me then," Lelei said as she walks up to them with her staff aglow.

She chants words and the crystal at the top of her staff glows. The light leaves the crystal and drifts over to the gate to engulf it. There is a clicking sound and the gate opens for the team to pass through.

"Great work, Lelei," Youji complimented her.

"Aargh! My little sister is surpassing me again!" Arpeggio lamented as she kneeds her fingers through her hair in jealous frustration.

"She merely thought of it before you," Rory snickered.

That causes Arpeggio to straighten with a furrowed brow as she takes out her bolas, a magic aid tipped with a crystal on each end, and starts twirling it.

"Oy, oy! Didn't I just say don't destroy the gates!" Youji exclaimed as he holds his hand out.

"Don't worry, I got this," Arpeggio snapped haughily with closed eyes, then lets fly with a ball of light of her own. It strikes the gate and engulfs it to cause it to also rise as well.

"Oh, so you can use your magic sensibly after all," Lelei said in her soft spoken voice with an undertone of a back-handed compliment in it.

They walk up to the window where a clerk of the JSDF would greet them. There, behind the glass is a woman lying across her desk, bloated with decay.

"That's Miko-san for you," Sergeant Major Souichirou Kuwahara said respectfully. "She was always dedicated to her job."

"It looks as if she's been dead for a week," Mari gasped.

"Which means she probably died shortly after giving us her last report," Shino said glumly.

"You're right about that," Rory said.

At the armored personnel carriers, Takeo and Souichirou manage to get into them and start up the engines, given that they have their universal keys with them. They start up their collective vehicles and move them out of the way. Once parked off to one side, they shut them off and emerge from them to rejoin the group. There are vehicle barriers blocking the street up ahead, causing Youji to sigh.

"Those are going to have to be moved," he said. "Lelei, Arpeggio."

The two sisters start up their magic and unleash it upon the barricades, causing them to be move to either side. The group walk out into the rest of the now deserted Ginza District. Hardly any cars or trucks are to be seen. Those few still around are parked.

"It's so quiet," Tuka gasped.

"It looks like the people listened to those broadcasts," Takeo said.

"Broadcasts?" Lelei inquired.

"The moment Hardy's Plague appeared in Japan our government sent out reports to all citizens to quaratine themselves so that the disease would not infect everyone," Akira said. "And at the same time keep the streets clear of traffic so that there wouldn't be any traffic jams to prevent any survivors from being evacuated over into the Special Area after the disease burned itself out."

"It looks as if they had listened after all," Rory noted.

"That's because Japan is very small and very mountainous, so there's really no place to run," Youji said. "This forced the people to hunker down in their homes and apartments."

"Then that means in every building there are dead people," Rory said.

"So exactly . . . where are we going, Commander?" Souichirou asked.

Youji thinks for a moment with a quizzical look.

"I never really thought about that," he finally answered wistfully. "Although now that you mentioned it . . . I . . . I would really like to see if Risa is still alive."

They take one of the buses nearby. Most of the Third Recon Unit remain behind to help the rest of the JSDF to help secure the surroundings. Accompanying Youji are Shino, as she wants to find out about her sister; Mari, as she wants to evaluate any possible survivors they encounter. The Special Area inhabitants join them.

The streets are eeriely silent and empty, save for the odd vehicle parked nearby. The rarity of vehicles shows the obedience of the populace to that broadcast.

"The last time we were here, there were millions of people walking up and down the streets, so many vehicles," Tuka said. "And now . . . they're all gone." Her tone trailing off in sorrow.

"After what Giselle had revealed, there might only be fifty thousand people left alive across the world," Youji said.

"How many people used to live in this world?" Rory asked.

"Seven and a half billion," Youji answered.

"How much is that?" Tuka asked.

"Seven thousand, five hundred times one million," Youji answered firmly.

A collective gasp went up from the inhabitants of the Special Area. Even Lelei has an expression of awe, albeit subdued.

"S-Seven thousand," Rory gasped.

"F-Five hundred," Tuka added.

"T-Times o-one m–m-million?!" Arpeggio finished with a stammer.

"How was it possible for there to be that many people in this world?!" Yao gasped.

"Better farming techniques," Youji answered. "Agriculture had advanced to the point that one farmer could feed at least one hundred people. Of course, they mostly weren't family farms mind you."

"And now billions of them are dead after catching Hardy's Plague," Yao said.

"So does that mean all fifty thousand people will be coming here?" Mari asked.

"I have no doubt about it," Youji said. "I know I would if I were one of the survivors out there. The problem is that I don't think all fifty thousand will make it here."

"The language barrier is another problem," Shino added. "Japanese is but one of hundreds of different languages spoken in this world, and it is far from common. A language called English is the most commonly spoken language. It's known as an international language. I unfortunately, know very little of it."

"I don't know much English either," Mari admitted.

"Neither do I," Youji added.

"How come this In-gleesh is called an in-ter-nash-onal language?" Lelei asked.

"It all started with a country called England," Youji answered. "It is a small country located on the other side of this world. Hundreds of years ago, its people spread out and took over a large land and colonized it. That colony declared its independance and waged war against their motherland to become a republic they called, America."

"Where is it?" Lelei asked.

"It is on a continent called North America," Youji answered. "To the south of it is a continent called South America."

"You mean that country covers two continents?" Rory asked.

"No, it only covers a part of the North American continent," Youji answered. "It's known as the United States of America to distinquish itself from the other countries upon those two continents. It was the most powerful country in our world."

"And they're a republic," Rory said with a hint of amusement. "Usually it's very small states that are republics."

"Given that before the plague, distance was a small issue for us and communication a nonissue it was easy for countries to maintain their political cohesiveness," Youji answered.

They continue to drive upon the empty streets, yet to encounter anyone still alive. They arrive at the two-story house of Risa, Youji's ex-wife.

"Yao," Youji said. "Do you sense anyone inside there?"

For a moment, the Dark Elf is silent.

"No," she finally answered regretfully.

Youji closes his eyes as he sighs deeply.

"I could check to see if she is actually inside," Rory said.

Youji looks at her for a moment. Then again Rory serves the God of Darkness, War, Death, Violence, and Insanity, and in her centuries long life she had administered death like at Italica and has seen death in all of its forms.

He nods and opens the door. Rory gets out and walks over to the house and they watch as she opens the door, then enters. A minute later, she emerges and closes the door behind her, then returns to the bus. She does not speak, but her look answers Youji's question about Risa.

Youji nods somberly. Even though he and Risa had been briefly married and at times she had treated him like a bank, Youji still feels something for his ex. He puts his hands together and bows, causing the rest to do so.

"Rest in peace, Risa," Youji sighed.

"I'm sorry, Captain," Shino said softly.

"So now what?" Rory asked.

"Now we go check up on my sister," Shino answered. "Although I'm not being hopeful either." Her tone ending on a somber note.

"But still you want closure," Youji said.

"Yes . . . And I'll drive us there."

Shino drives the bus through the silent city of Tokyo. That is when Yao speaks up.

"I sense someone nearby!"

This causes Shino to slow and everyone to look around throughout either side of the windows.

"I guess this means that Hardy's Plague was either not universally contagious or not universally fatal," Mari said while looking out her own window as well.

"There!" Youji exclaimed ardently while pressing his forefinger into the window, causing Shino to stop.

They look to see someone running toward them from down a street, who then stumbles and falls. Everyone gets out and runs toward the survivor who slowly gets back up and into a sitting position. They reach the survivor, a woman. She wears grey slacks, powder blue shoes, a green blouse, and a backpack on her back. Her head is tilted downward so that her long hair, dyed brown because black roots are showing, conceals her face.

"Ahhhh, I"m still weak!" The woman moaned, then lifts her head while sweeping her hair back from her face with both hands and looks up at them.

Only to give a shrunken iris start as to who it is she is looking up at and who in turn is staring back down at her.

"Little girl?!" Rory gloated with a broad smile.

Kouhara Mizuki continues to stare back up with a shocked expression of shrunken irises. Despite her haggard appearance, she is still a stately woman.

"You know her, your holiness?" Yao asked.

"She is one of Japan's senators who publicly criticized the Jayesdeef about the dragon attack," Rory answered. "She tried to make a fool out of them."

"Oh, so it's her," Shino sneered. "She gets to live while those who deserved to live died?"

"Now see here, Kuribayashi," Youji chided, "she was only doing her job. And since she is a survivor, we have to take her in."

"Th-Thank you," Mizuki sighed sheepishly as she bows her head momentarily, then struggles to stand. Youji offers to help her get back up.

"Kouhara-san," Youji stated to get her to pay close attention. "Did you encounter any other survivors before you met us?"

"N-No," she answered in a tired though firm tone.

Everyone silently glances around at each other with somber expressions.

"Now that is only as far as I know," Mizuki sighed in an offhand manner. "It's not like I checked every house and apartment building in Tokyo, or even throughout the rest of the country for that matter."

"You got a point there," Youji said. "Let's go everyone."


	3. Chapter 2

Shino continues driving the bus, turning down various streets. Kouhara Mizuki sits amongst the others with a sheepishly worried expression. Rory sits across the aisle from her while leering with displeasure at Mizuki's presence.

Mizuki is next startled by the presence of Rory's halberd lying on the floor between them. "Wait, was that wrapped up in that cloth?!"

"Yes it was," Rory answered as she reaches down and strokes it. "I simply was not going to leave a sacred relic behind."

"It still doesn't change the fact that carrying a concealed weapon around in Japan is illegal!" Mizuki snapped. "And into the Diet no less! And now that I remember, as you were speaking to me you were attempting to untie it!" Her voice ending in a near shriek.

"And it's a good thing Itami stopped me, little girl," Rory said in a seductively dangerous tone while giving her a look to match.

Mizuki gnashes her teeth with fright as her irises shrink slightly.

"Why did you criticize the Jeyesdeef like that after the heroic deed they had performed?" Rory next demanded.

"I-It wasn't personal," Mizuki stated nervously.

"Wasn't personal?" Rory said sarcastically. "They warned the people of Coda about the Fire Dragon, helped to evacuate and escort them. And when it finally did attack, they managed to maim and drive it away, thereby saving most of the refugees. And for that, you scold them and now claim it wasn't personal?"

"Alright, I'm sorry! We didn't understand the whole situation! I admit it!" Mizuki gasped with exasperation. "It's just that we felt sorry for those who died. Also, being a member of the Opposition means having to assume there was incompetence."

"Opposition?" Rory inquired.

"We were the conscience of the government. The voice of the people," Mizuki answered. "Our duty was to prevent any abuse of power by questioning the government; opposing whatever bad policies they might wish to pass; and expose whatever wrongdoings they had engaged in. Bad things happen when people in positions of power are allowed to do as they please. As I am sure you can understand back in your world."

 _More like trying to gain control over the government so as to have your own selfish agendas implemented_. Youji thought cynically.

"Did you get the disease, Kouhara-san?" Youji instead asked.

Mizuki blinks at him for a moment.

"Yes, I did," she admitted.

The others gape with awe.

"B-Billions of people died from that!" Mari gasped. "And yet you managed to survive it! What was it like?!"

"Like you're dying," Mizuki answered with a thousand yard stare and tone to match. "I caught it a day after that quarantine was placed upon the Gate. I woke up that morning with a fever and headache. I didn't believe that I had the Brazilian Flu. I didn't want to really. Then came the loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, and other stomach problems." Wanting to skirt around the diarrheal part.

"So did your diapers need changing?" Rory snickered, seeing through Mizuki's explaination.

Mizuki rumbles a sigh, then leers at Rory. "You may be hundreds of years old but you're still like a kid."

"Rory," Youji sighed with exasperation. "Please continue, Kouhara-san."

Mizuki takes a deep breath and sighs as she collects her thoughts once again.

"Those symptoms were bad enough, but at least they never intensified like the fever, weakness, and aches. I wore nothing but panties and slept without covering up and I still felt like I was being roasted alive. All I could do was lie atop my bed because I was paralyzed with weakness. And the aches!" Lowering her head momentarily to place her face into her hands, then raises her head with a sigh and a weary look. "It felt as if I were being ground up . . . Despite my weakened state, I couldn't get much sleep and ended up hallucinating. It got to a point that I didn't care if I died, as long as my suffering ended."

"So how long did you have it for, Kouhara-san?" Mari asked.

"According to my cell phone, it was for four days, but my recovery was very slow and painful. My bed was soaked with sweat, forcing me to sleep out in the living room on the floor wrapped in a sofa sheet. For several days, I was so weak that all I could do was crawl around. Since all I could do was crawl, I had to drink the water from my bathing room's tap. It was another day before I had an appetite to eat and could only eat from the lower part of my fridge and the cabinets. That was really all I could do . . . Sleep . . . wake up and crawl to the fridge or lower cabinets for something simple to eat . . . crawl to the bathing room for a drink of water from the bathing tap . . . and back out to the living room and cover up in that spread. It was a week before I got strong enough to stand up on my own without needing to hold onto something. It was another week before I was finally able to go outside, that being today. Then you people showed up and, well, you know the rest."

"That is amazing," Mari gasped. "To actually hear of someone having it and overcoming it is just simply amazing! This is hopeful because there might be more survivors out there!"

"Your extremely lucky to be alive when so many more couldn't handle it," Rory said with a hint of respect in her tone.

"Makes one wonder about the numbers of survivors from the Brazilian Flu," Mizuki said.

"Ah, Kouhara-san," Youji said. "There is something that you should know about that disease."

Youji explains to Mizuki about its origins. By the time he has finished explaining, Mizuki has a look of horror as her irises are shimmering pinpricks and her mouth is agape.

"Wh-Why would this Hardy do such a thing?!"

"Because she learned about the coming asteroid," Youji answered.

"And according to what Giselle told us," Mari added, "there might be no more than fifty thousand survivors out of the billions that once lived."

"S-So few people!" Mizuki gasped with pinpricked irises.

"And you're priviliged to be one of them," Rory said.

They arrive at their destination.

"Yao?" Shino asked.

"No, I don't sense anyone in there," the Dark Elf answered.

"Yao can sense the presence of others without needing to hear or see them," Youji explained to Mizuki. "She sensed you before we saw you."

Shino silently stares at the apartment building where her sister lives . . . Or lived. Maybe she had gone elsewhere, her job as news reporter did take her away from her place and she would have been reporting on the spread of Hardy's Plague.

"Hey, Kuribayashi," Youji said. "Lelei and myself will go and check. Which floor and apartment?"

"She lives in that building on the seventh floor in number seven hundred and five," Shino answered as she points at the building before them.

Youji and Lelei get out and go up to the apartment. With Lelei, they are able to open locked doors to enter.

"I get the feeling we'll find her sister's corpse," Lelei said.

"Me too," Youji said.

They arrive on the seventh floor and the designated apartment. The door is expectantly locked and Lelei unlocks it, then opens the door. They enter.

"There's no smell of rot," Youji noted. "Maybe she went elsewhere before she sickened."

"Or maybe she's in her bedroom," Lelei said as she points to a closed door.

They go over and crack open the door, only to quickly close it with a wince of disgust from the stench that assaulted their nostrils.

"Yep, she's in there," Youji said. "Come on, let's return."

They return to the bus.

"She's there alright," Youji said somberly to Shino.

Shino closes her eyes in regret, then lowers her head. There is a moment of silence and a prayer for her sister as well.

"What about your parents?" Youji asked.

Shino takes a deep breath and sighs hoarsely.

"I'm pretty certain they're dead as well," she finally answered solomnly. "Though they live in Yokohama, so it's pretty far."

"Mine are here in Tokyo," Mizuki also said solomnly as well. "I don't need to check to see if they're dead. I just know that they are."

"Let's continue driving around," Youji said. "Kuribayashi, let me drive."

"We should focus on seeing if there are any survivors around who have seen or heard us coming," Youji said.

"What about the hospitals?" Mari suggested. "If there are any survivors, they should be there."

"A good a place as any," Youji said.

They arrive at one of the hospitals. There are vehicles about the place.

"Crowded, no surprise there," Shino said dryly. "I guess not everyone obeyed that order to stay indoors."

"That's a pretty big building for a Healing House!" Yao noted with awe.

"It's as big as Hardy's temple!" Rory added.

"Yao, do you sense anyone around here?" Youji asked.

"No, I don't, Sir Itami."

"Then we have no reason to be here," Youji said, and he puts the bus in motion.

They ride around the city, going throughout other neighbourhoods.

"This is overwhelming!" Shino gasped with wide eyes while looking out one side of the windows. "There used to be tens of millions of people living in Japan, and on any given day there would be millions outside! And now . . . this . . . this absence!"

"The contagion rate of Hardy's Plague may have been absolute, but its mortality rate was not," Mari said. "Sadly, it just means that Japan's surviving population might only be counted in the hundreds now."

"Just think of how empty the rest of the world now is," Shino said with silent awe. "If you had approached me a year ago and told me that a disease was going to kill off billions of people, I would've laughed at you . . . And now . . . Now, it's just like something out of a post-apocalyptic story."

"What is post-a-pok-a-lip-tic?" Rory inquired.

"It means after the apocalypse," Youji answered. "An apocalypse is an event involving worldwide devastation. The end of the world. This is the only one in Human memory."

"And I never thought I'd be living it," Mari said, with Youji, Shino, and Mizuki agreeing.

"I sense someone nearby!" Yao said.

They pay attention and are soon rewarded with the sight of a person who comes running toward them. They hurry out to greet the person in question. As the person gets closer, they see that it is a Japanese man who looks to be in his thirties. Upon seeing the Special Area residents, he is surprised.

"I-It's them!"

"That's right," Youji said. "And we're on a search for other survivors like Kouhara Mizuki right here. What's your name?"

"Tarou. Komara Tarou."

"Well, Komara-san, it's a pleasure to meet you. Come aboard."

The bus ride continues throughout Tokyo in search of more survivors. Though by noon, they do not encounter any more survivors and return to the Ginza District, which now has more JSDF personnel scurrying about clearing out the dead from various buildings.

"Let's just drop our guests off here and figure out what to do next," Youji said. "But first we get something to eat."

They stop the bus and everyone is soon outside.

"Okay, the first thing we will do is eat," Youji said as he addressed them. "And then we will assign tasks to help with the cleanup."

Those tasks being essentially helping to clear the rest of the buildings of corpses. They are provided suits and masks to do the job. Everyone is eager to help with the disposal of the bodies as they go to the gender segregated rooms. Everyone that is except for . . .

"Do I really have to do something like this?" Mizuki sneered as she is staring down at the dark green suit.

"I knew you were gonna say that," Rory said haughtily with a leer while pausing in the midst of putting her own suit on. "I took one look at you and thought, now there's someone who hates doing dirty work. It just goes to show your lack of spirit, little girl."

"But I don't lack for an adult appearance," Mizuki retorted. "And now that I think about it, I'm starting to wonder if this isn't some sort of payback."

"You really think we're that petty?" Shino growled with a glare. "From what I heard, Rory told you off, so that squares it with us. Now get dressed and help us."

Mizuki sighs, then puts on the suit.


	4. Chapter 3

The JSDF clears out as many dead as possible. Not all of the dead are Human as there are the carcasses of pets such as dogs and cats that had to be cleared out as well. Clearing out the corpses proves to be a difficult task because decay has made their skin squishy so that it sloughs off from a simple grasp, making them difficult to grip. The corpses tend to look obese, not because they truly are but because of bloating, making their removal worse. Bacteria in the process of breaking down dead bio matter give off their own waste as well, either in the form of sludge or gas, and both such bacteria are present in dead bio matter. And since bacteria thrive in warmth and humidity, they replicate more quickly, with Japan's marine climate giving no exception. The more dead bio matter bacteria eat, the more they replicated, and the more gas they continue to produce. Gas that builds up faster than it can escape.

Between the limits of the elasticity of skin and the decay that continues to break down its integrity, rooms are entered where a corpse, now reduced to skin and bones, had burst on its own to spray putrid sludge about the place, making the items in the room unfit for use. Worse, the room itself is left useless without having to resort to heavy duty cleaning and disintecting. Something which gallons of disinfectant and air freshener needed to be procured. The largest stadium in Tokyo had to be converted into a charnel house.

* * *

Mizuki stands over the bloated discolored corpse of a woman whose eyes are slightly open to show them rolled up while her mouth sags slightly open. She seems to be chubby, but is clearly bloated as her clothes appear several sizes too small. Rory is holding a black garbage bag open so as to pull it over from the head down.

"Gross and creepy," Mizuki remarked while staring down at the dead woman, then kneels alongside her.

"Careful, little girl," Rory warned. "It could burst if you mishandle it."

"Fine, fine," Mizuki sighed. "And stop calling me, little girl. You're the one who looks like a little girl."

"Just reposition the corpse, Kouhara," Rory said begrudgingly.

Mizuki carefully lays hands upon its shoulders and moves it. The corpse groans, causing Mizuki to squeak and dart away from it with wide eyes and shrunken irises. Rory is more reserved in her reaction.

"Creepy! Creepy! That was too creepy!" Mizuki fretted.

"At least it's not trying to attack us like the ones that did back in our world," Rory said. "But don't worry about the dead here. As corpses decompose, the gases build up within them and can find its way out through their mouth, or even their bottom, especially when moved. Now get back to it."

Mizuki sighs, then crawls back up to the corpse. She once again moves the corpse. And once again, it groans, but Mizuki regains her composure and is able to manipulate the corpse so that Rory can pull the garbage bag over its head. Mizuki clasps it by its stomach to better reposition it.

And the corpse bursts, splashing liquified innards all over Mizuki and Rory. Even though both are wearing their protective suits, they cry out with disgust.

"Are you an idiot?!" Rory exclaimed with disgust with closed eyes as the vile sludge drips off of herself. "Didn't you listen to the Jayesdeef warn you about this?!"

"I never expected them to actually burst like a water balloon!" Mizuki clamored with closed eyes as sludge also drips off of herself too.

"Well now one has! And all because you were careless!" Rory snapped as she glares down at Mizuki with shrunken irises.

"I'm sorry, okay!" Mizuki exclaimed.

Rory grumbles and folds her arms to glare down at Mizuki. "Even as a senator, you were careless in your judgement of the Jayesdeef," she asked curtly. "How did you become a senator anyway?"

"I did it through service to the community," Mizuki stated.

"And which community was that?" Rory asked sarcastically with a leer. "The male community?"

"How dare you!" Mizuki snapped as she lunges back up onto her feet to glare down at Rory with shrunken irises.

"We need to get cleaned up!" Rory growled. "And then we need to return and clean up this mess you made!"

"Fine!" Mizuke snapped back.

They go outside and are greeted by expressions of disgust as the stench wafts from them. They are hosed down with water and then with disinfectant. True to Rory's word, they return to the mess they made of that corpse.

* * *

It is evening as Youji, his unit, and their Special Area friends are sitting at a table over a supper of meat and vegetable rations.

"Lelei," Shino said, "since you and your sister are mages, could either of you bring up some means of sending out something that would draw the attention of any survivors out there? Say . . . Fireworks?"

"We could," Arpeggio answered. "But we would have to be constantly doing that."

"What if we simply crafted a beam of light that went up to the clouds?" Lelei suggested. "It can be a do and leave spell."

"Do and leave?" Shino asked.

"A mage casts a spell and simply ties it off," Arpeggio answered. "They may need to maintain it every now and again, but their perpetual input is not needed once it is put into effect."

"Can it be done now?"

"Just let us finish our supper and we will do just that," Lelei said.

They finish their supper and soon Lelei and Arpeggio perform the spell.

"What should we call it first?" Arpeggio said.

"Before performing a spell, it needs to be named," Lelei quickly explained to the people of Earth.

"It's a pillar of light, right?" Shino said. "How about, Light Pillar?"

"Yeah, that'll do," Arpeggio mused.

"Right," Lelei said. "The Light Pillar Spell it is."

Lelei and her sister are about to begin their ritual, only to be interrupted by Youji.

"Shouldn't there be a place where it will be out of the way? And wouldn't it be better if it were at a higher place? Like the top of the dome, maybe?"

"Yes, that's a good place to put it."

Lelei and Arpeggio begin once again with Lelei having her arms spread out and mumbling words, while Arpeggio twirls her bolas around. A ball of light forms in the air above them, which grows in size and brightness. As it does so, witnesses start to shield their eyes from it as it starts to appear like the sun.

The ball of light rises high and continues to rise all the while growing in size and brightness. It hovers above the dome and begins to elongate and soon becomes a pillar of light that goes up so high that it literally reaches the clouds. It also starts shifting colors to increase curiosity even further.

"Oh that'll work," Shino commented. "Only a blind person will fail to notice that."

"Especially at night," Tuka said.

As night falls, the Light Pillar turns out to be as bright as a full moon, and cycles through a different color by the second. Sure enough, the following day, a dozen more survivors show up, each Japanese and stating that they had seen the Light Pillar from afar last night. With a man and woman stating that they had come all the way from Iwaki because they had seen it all the way from there. The new arrivals also pitch in with any work that needs to be done.

The Light Pillar remains lit, day and night, needingly only to be maintained by either Lelei or Arpeggio. Even more survivors begin making their way to Tokyo from all over Japan because they had seen the Light Pillar from afar.

With more people showing up, the Ginza District begins to get more lively as it means that more people can pitch in to help the JSDF. Various problems of a non-working infrastructure does pop up, such as water and sewage disposal. They had to rely mainly on portable toilets for this and then dispose of the raw sewage into the ocean via trucks, since the sewage treatment plants are disfunctional. The power grid being down also means refridgerators full of spoiled food that must be sealed with tape so as they will not be casually opened. Food had to be procured from the Special Area, along with whatever preserved foodstuffs that are found throughout Tokyo.

* * *

A week has passed since the lifting of the quarantine and during that time more Japanese had arrived. They came from as far north as Wakkanai in Hokkaido and as far south as Iriomote Island in the Ryukyu Islands. The JSDF were finally able to establish that Mari was generally correct in her assessment of Japan's surviving population in that they manage to count eight hundred survivors, and all fit the same profile: ethnic Japanese; between the ages of sixteen and sixty, with the majority between twenty and fifty; middle class; no prior health problems. All of them arrive in Tokyo at the Ginza District and all want to get off Earth since that asteroid is on its way.

Over in the Special Area, Youji walks over to his friends sitting at a table in the PX. Mari and Shino are there as well.

"Hey, did you guys hear? The satellites have picked up the presence of survivors outside of Japan. All over the world!"

"How many of them are there?" Rory asked.

"As far as we know," Youji answered slowly. "Approximately fifty thousand."

There is a moment of silence as they have intense looks and a subtle sweatdrop on their faces.

"It's just as Hardy had predicted," Rory said.

"Do you really think they will come here, father?" Tuka asked.

"Well," Youji pondered as he looks upward in thought while scratching the back of his head for a moment. "They are scattered all over Earth. I suppose those throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa can simply get a car or truck and drive here in a convoy to South Korea. From there, it's simply a matter of them getting ferried across the Korea Strait. Those still alive throughout the other continents on the other hand are going to have to cross the Pacific Ocean, Earth's largest ocean."

"Will they be helped in getting here?" Lelei asked.

"We just can't simply go across Earth in search of them because we don't have the people," Shino said, "and Earth is simply much too big."

"But you guys can prepare for their coming," Lelei said in a hushed serious tone. "You just can't abandon the rest of the survivors to a certain death, especially not since they managed to survive that disease."

"Speaking of which," Mari said. "Those who survived Hardy's Plague were those with biology strong enough to hold out until their immune system got the upper hand on whatever pathogen Hardy had created."

"And who would they be?" Shino asked.

"If the Japanese survivors are of any indication," as the nurse of the Third Recon Unit thinks, "they will range from teenagers to middle aged. The very young have underdeveloped immune systems and the very old have weaker ones. A higher income level plays a role as well."

"Why is that?" Shino asked.

"A lower income level limits access to nutritious food and proper health care. Cleanliness and coolness of environment are other contributing factors because being able to remain in a relatively clean environment means there are less potential pathogens to overwhelm an already taxed immune system, and a cooler environment means there is less heat to aggravate an intense fever. Something very difficult or even impossible to achieve in hotter climates."

"So all of the survivors may be relatively young and middle class, and from countries with cooler climates," Shino said.

"Then judging by that number, there must've been so few Humans that met that criteria," Tuka said.

"There were hundreds of millions more Humans that met that criteria, Tuka," Mari said. "But they still died because of the odds stacked against them. Outside of Japan, other nations would not have shut down as easily as we did. Chaos would have broken out from the breakdown in law and order so that millions more were killed. Some of whom could have potentially survived Hardy's Plague."

"Don't forget that if the survivors try to undertake the journey in getting here," Youji added, "the death rate may go even higher. Those coming from across Europe, Asia, and Africa might have an easier time since they will only need to cross the Korea Strait. Those coming from Australia and the Americas are going to have a higher mortality rate since crossing the Pacific will result in an increased likelyhood of drowning at sea. And I doubt any of them will try a plane."

"Then by the time they get here, there could less than fifty thousand of them," Shino said. "And from all two hundred nations too."

"Were there really two hundred nations in your world?" Yao asked.

"Yes," Youji answered. "Although boundries are pointless now since there are barely any people left alive."

"We should get a globe and a map to show them," Shino said.

"Come to think of it I have yet to see any sort of map," Lelei said.

"Then we'll have to show you," Youji said.

True to his word, Youji takes them into the command center where he finds a map of Earth along with a globe. The world map is a large poster with its nations color coded. Japan is circled with a dot for Tokyo. The Special Area inhabitants gape at the map in awe.

"What a huge world!" Yao marveled.

"So many lands!" Arpeggio gasped. "And with such weird shapes!"

"They look like empires!" Tuka mused.

"To think that Japan is such a small country who bested the Empire," Rory gasped. "I suppose that spoke volumes about the other larger nations of this world."

Youji goes on to explain the other continents to them.

"Why would anyone want to live in Ant-ark-tick-ah?" Lelei asked.

"No one lived there on a permanent basis," Youji explained. "And only research facilities were built there. I'd hate to think that there are still survivors down there, and it'll soon be Fall down there too."

"Don't you mean Spring?" Rory asked.

"In the southern hemisphere, the seasons are reversed," Youji explained.

* * *

All across Earth, the survivors undergo recovery; soon, they are on the move. Alone at first, but eventually grouping together. All of them driven by the understanding that the Brazilian Flu, as they so obliviously still call it, did not destroy that asteroid. Across the Old World, they move east. Across the New World, they move west. Any still alive in Australia, move north. No matter where they are, all are moving with purpose, with hope.

To Japan.


	5. Chapter 4

In Tokyo, Japan, hundreds of survivors are passing through the Gate in a slow procession, with JSDF personnel there to oversee the orderly flow. Their numbers will add to the population of Alnus, which is turning into a city. English is being used as it is an international language, at least where the refugees are concerned.

For none of them are Japanese.

Over the past several months, the refugees came from across Earth. Their exodus monitored closely by JSDF command via satellites. From across the Old World, they gathered in their thousands in South Korea, given its close proximity to Japan; from across the New World, they gathered throughout several major port cities that border the Pacific Ocean. It was easier with the Old World survivors because they were simply ferried across the roughly one-hundred-mile wide Korea Strait, especially with Tsushima Island as a stopover, and directed to Tokyo for processing. As for the New World, they had to make the effort to come in ships on their own. Dozens of ships bearing anywhere from less than ten up to thousands; some of which sank, losing all of their passengers before they got anywhere near Japan.

Up in a nearby building watching the whole procession is Rory, Lelei, Tuka, and Yao. As it turned out, the first three were well-known to the rest of Humanity and became celebrities. The trio had to watch from up high so as not to disrupt the steady flow of people going through.

"All those people from across the world are still coming," Tuka marveled.

"There's not as many of them as there used to be," Yao said.

"It seems that all of the survivors that could make it are here," Lelei answered. "Although this is a big world so there could still be more out there-hey, Alfe, what are you doing?" As she notices Arpeggio doing something to cause Lelei to take on a displeased look.

Her stepsister is busying herself with some sort of magic ritual that involves twirling her bolas.

"Hey, Alfe," Lelei stated this time with that sleepy-eyed peeved look. "I said, what are you doing?"

"I'm fitting in the time to examine that spell I've been working on," Arpeggio grumbled while concentrating on her bolas.

"Alfe, if it's what I think it is, you need to stop," Lelei answered.

"What's she working on?" Tuka asked.

"She's been working on a teleportation spell for quite some time," Lelei answered.

"I've heard that even the most experienced of mages are loathed to work on it, due to its unpredictability," Yao said.

"I can get this, I know it," Arpeggio snapped. "I know I can go to any spot I want to if I just concentrate on the image of the place I want."

"You could end up teleporting yourself inside an active volcano or deep under the ocean," Rory warned.

"Alfe, no one has ever successfully used a teleportation spell because the caster cannot know where they will go," Lelei warned. "It's like driving blind."

"Shut up, you're distracting me!" Arpeggio snapped, then twirls her bolas more fervently. The effort showing on her face as sweatdrops trickle down the side of her face. She begins to mumble a chant that sounds like a metallic drone as a glow appears around her and brightens.

"Alfe! Don't!" Lelei stated.

The spell Arpeggio casts reaches fever pitch and she is enveloped in a glow. In seconds, it is blinding and everyone is forced to shield their eyes.

* * *

"So let me see if I can understand this," Youji groaned as he pinches his nosebridge while being confronted by Rory, Lelei, Tuka, and Yao about the situation. "Arpeggio casted some sort of spell and now she's gone."

"She teleported herself somewhere," Lelei said.

"Then where did she go?" Youji asked.

"We don't know," Lelei answered.

"Would it be possible that she only teleported to someplace nearby?" Youji asked.

"Maybe," Lelei answered. "Or maybe she teleported halfway around this or the other world."

"So how are we going to find her?" Youji asked.

"I can locate her, but it will take the combined efforts of Rory, Tuka, and Yao," Lelei answered.

* * *

Arpeggio awakens and instantly darts up onto her feet as the memory of the teleportation spell she had performed overwhelms her. It is overcast with the sky covered in grey layered clouds. The day is also dim, meaning early morning or late evening, either of which she is not certain of. She notices the city near a large body of water. Nearby is a highway laid with that substance she learned of being called asphalt, with those cars and trucks, parked or otherwise, abandoned or with their dead and rotted passengers still inside them. Moisture covers everything, including her back, suggesting that it had rained a while ago.

She figures that she must still be in this world, since her world does not have those towers, those vehicles, and those people clearly died from Hardy's Plague.

She decides to return, taking note of a tower amongst the skyscrapers with a disk on top of it.

* * *

Youji and his team watch as Lelei stands over a map of Earth while dangling a crystal attached to a piece of string over it. Around her are Rory, Yao, and Tuka.

"Are you sure you'll be able to find her that way?" Youji asked.

"If she's still in this world, then this crystal will land directly on the spot she is on," Lelei answered. "And with Rory, Tuka, and Yao using their magic to bolster mine, it will be made all the easier."

"For all that we know, she could have teleported herself to Earth's interior," Youji groaned.

"We still must try to find out," Lelei said in her hushed seriousness. "So let's do this."

Lelei closes her eyes and chants as Rory, Tuka, and Yao add their power to hers. A chant sounding like an eagle's screech comes out of Lelei's throat as the crystal begins to spin in a circle. It spins faster, then flies downward at an angle to trail the string taunt. The tip of the crystal lands on a point on the map, keeping the string taunt as the crystal remains at an angle.

"So I take it you found her?" Youji said.

There is no answer from the four as they are deep in concentration. Youji hurries forward to look at where the crystal is pointing and makes a mental note of it.

"Okay, I got it!"

The chanting stops and the string goes slack as the crystal topples over. Yet its point still remains pointing at the spot. The others crowd around to stare at the spot.

"I can't read it, that's English," Youji read carefully, then stands. "We need someone who can read it. Although one thing is for certain: Arpeggio is in America."

"Now that we know where she is, how are we going to rescue her, Youji?" Lelei asked.

Youji hums with closed eyes, a furrowed brow, and rubs his head. "A ship would take too long." Then lowers his hand and looks at Lelei once again. "So we'll have to fly there in a plane. It may take time to prepare though. Too bad there isn't some way we could contact her."

"I could try to do the Telepathy Spell," Lelei said.

"You can actually do that?" Youji mused.

"It's not as easy as it sounds," Lelei answered. "We mages are actually reluctant to use it because it gives us headaches. The longer we use it, the worse it gets, even with borrowing Rory, Tuka, and Yao's power. So I won't be able to talk to her for long."

They set up the ritual with Lelei lying down and Rory, Tuka, and Yao around her. With a piece of Arpeggio's clothing, they begin. In Lelei's mind, she is searching for Arpeggio as she has a clear mental image of her as if a picture were placed inside her head.

* * *

Arpeggio wanders throughout the city as she wonders where she is. The city is deserted with most of its buildings bearing marks of vandalism as various merchandise is scattered about. She picks up a magazine and looks through it to find lettering that she is unfamiliar with.

That is when she gets a profound mental image of Lelei's face as if she had been staring into her face.

{Alfe!}

Arpeggio gasps as her eyes go wide and her irises shrink.

"Lelei?!"

{Yes, I'm using the Telepathy Spell to talk to you. Now listen carefully. I used the Delving Spell to find you, so we know where you are. You are still within the Human homeworld, but you are not in Japan anymore.}

"So where am I?" Arpeggio spoke aloud.

{You are in that country called Ah-meer-ee-kah.}

"I see . . . So what now?"

{Now we are going to try to go to you and bring you back here, but it may take time. In the meantime, stay where you.}

"O-Okay."

{Ah, my head is beginning to hurt. You know how the Telepathy Spell is. So I'm going to leave now. Hopefully, you'll hear from me soon.}

"Okay, goodbye for now."

* * *

Back in Tokyo, Lelei opens her eyes and sits up as she groans while pressing her hand against her head.

"Are you going to be all right?" Youji asked.

"Yes, but now we must get ready to go to Ah-meer-ee-kah," Lelei answered.

They go to General Hazama and explain the situation.

"I see," he said gravely. "That is an unfortunate turn of events."

"So how soon can we leave?" Lelei asked.

General Hazama stares at her for a moment.

"Don't tell me that-" Youji began with disbelief.

"Relax, Itami, of course you can go and rescue her," General Hazama assured, causing the gang to relax. "But it will have to be in three days time. We have to select a small plane and upgrade it for fuel longevity. You're going to have make use of an American though. And fortunately for you, there was someone in here awhile ago. Maybe he can help. His name is Eric Fedkin. Perhaps you heard about him? He was on the ship from Hawaii."

"Oh yeah, I heard about that," Youji mused. "There were nine people on that boat. They were low on food and water by the time they got here."

"I'll have him called in here," General Hazama said.

"Why him?" Youji asked.

"Because he has become fairly fluent in the language of the Special Area."

In a short time, they are introduced to Eric Fedkin. He is in his twenties, Caucasian, with light brown hair and hazel eyes, and as tall as Youji.

"I can't believe I get to meet Rory Mercury, Tuka Luna Marceau, and Lelei La Lelena!" Eric gasped as he shakes hands with them. He then looks to Yao. "I'm sorry, but what is your name?"

"Yao Ro Dushi. I am a Dark Elf."

"Ah, well that's interesting," Eric mused.

"Eric-san," General Hazama said in stilted English to get his attention. "You have been called in here for a reason."

General Hazama explains the situation to Eric.

"Okay, and you want someone with them who is familiar with the area," Eric mused. "Actually, I'm from Canada, Vancouver to be exact. I was on vacation in Hawaii when that plague struck. But hey, America is not that different from Canada, so I'm your man. So where exactly are we going in America?"

"I don't know how to pronounce it," Youji said as he takes out the map of the world to spread on the floor. "But it's right here." Upon finding it and pointing it out to Eric.

"Seattle!" Eric exclaimed delightfully.

"Have you ever been there, Eric-san?" Youji asked.

"You bet I have! A few times!"

"That's great," Youji said.

True to General Hazama's word, they are taking off in a plane from Tokyo International Airport three days later, early that morning. Aboard are Youji, Rory, Tuka, Yao, Lelei, and Eric. Their plane is a Falcon 2000, refitted for fuel longevity by adding an extra fuel tank and removing four of its original twelve seats for less weight to make it easier on fuel consumption. Their pilots are the jet pilots, Kamikoda, the one who challenged the Ancient Dragon, and Kurihama.


	6. Chapter 5

The Special Area inhabitants gaze intently out their respective windows in awe as they fly over the clouds under a clear blue sky with the sun shining down.

"Air travel is the safest form of travel," Youji said. "You're more likely to die in a car crash than in a plane crash. Well, except for you, Rory."

"Youji, how long will it take to reach See-at-all?" Rory asked.

"Twelve hours," he answered.

"Twelve hours," Eric mused. "It's a pity that we can't do this teleportation that her sister did, or else we'd be there already."

"It can't be done safely," Lelei answered. "Alfe was just lucky that she didn't get teleported to the bottom of the ocean."

"It's hard to believe that actual magic exists!" Eric gasped with wonderment.

"There are three different types of magic: Regular, Spirit, and Holy," Lelei said. "My sister and I can do Regular; Elves do Spirit; Gods and Demigods do Holy. They can be used in unison to bolster a spell."

"So how does magic work?" Eric asked.

"It is a force that imposes false realities upon the true reality," Lelei answered.

"False realities?" Eric inquired.

"It means that magic is based upon assumptions," Youji said. "It's like skipping a rock across a pond: it can be done, but not inevitably so. You have to use a flat rock, throw it at an underhanded cross, and the water must be calm. If just one of those conditions isn't met, then the rock will not skip. Or it might not even skip at all, even if all three conditions were met."

"Then it sounds like magic doesn't have practical applications," Eric said.

"Prack-tick-al ap-lick-a-shons?" Lelei asked.

"It means magic cannot be put to use in everyday life," Eric answered.

"That is true," Lelei admitted. "The only people who benefit from magic are the ones who can wield it, and even then not much. Alfe struggled to make ends meet back in Rondel. Wielding magic is something not everyone is capable of doing. You're either capable or incapable. So it's more of a calling than anything else. And about the closest practical application magic has is in the form of battle; even thought it had been losing its place as a weapon for quite some time now, and that was ever before the Gate was opened into your world. It takes power and time for a spell to be cast, especially a destructive one. And the more destructive the spell, the more power and time it takes."

"Then it sounds like science is more efficient than magic," Eric mused.

"That it would be," Lelei admitted.

"Then if magic is about interfering with the certainties of reality," Youji added, "science is about understanding the certainties of reality and applying them to work for all. There was a writer named Isaac Asimov who once said that magic is science that is not clearly understood."

"But now that we know real magic exists," Eric said slowly, "wouldn't it be better to state that science is the absence of magic?"

"Science is the absence of magic," Lelei mused. "That makes even more sense."

The flight to Seattle is taking longer than anticipated as it gets later in the evening. A large storm begins rolling in from the north, forcing them to fly further south to put as much distance between themselves and it as possible.

'Hey guys.' The pilot Kamikoda announced over the PA. 'It looks like we won't be able to avoid that storm.'

They feel the plane lurch to the right and end up looking out the left windows to see clouds as far as they could see, as high as mountains with pitch dark bottoms and that classic anvil top. Periodically, there are flashes of lightening to be seen from the bottoms.

"Can't we just simply fly above those clouds?" Tuka asked while staring out the window at them.

"No, we can't," Youji answered. "The air is lacking at higher altitudes. Airplanes are only able to fly because their propellors spin fast enough to pull it through the air to defy gravity. But the higher up one goes, the thinner the air gets."

"And the thinner the air gets," Lelei added, "the less effective the propellors are?"

"Exactly," Youji said. "That's why thunderstorms are troublesome for any propellor driven aircraft."

"I wonder if we can reach California in time?" Eric pondered aloud.

"Kal-ee-forn-yah?" Rory asked.

"It is, or was, one of the fifty states of America," Eric answered. "It's where Hollywood is located. A place where they make a lot of movies and television shows. It's also a wine-making country and grower of oranges. But you have no idea what I'm talking about, do you, Rory?"

"Only the part where they make wine and grow oranges."

"Like Japan, they're also prone to earthshakes," Youji added.

"Don't you mean earthquakes?" Eric asked.

"Over in the Special Area, they call it an earthshake," Youji said. "And it was their first one ever in living history."

"Seriously?" Eric marveled.

"Yes," Rory stated. "Before that there were no such things. And I have been alive for centuries."

'Everyone,' Kamikoda announced. 'We're entering the storm. Prepare yourselves accordingly.'

"We might need to assume the crash position," Youji grimly said.

"The crash position?" Tuka asked.

"This is how it goes," Youji said and he next bends over and tucks his head down between his legs. Then straightens. "When I yell for you to assume the crash position, do it. Understand?"

Everyone voices it so.

The day turns dark enough to be as if the sun had already set an hour ago, with only their silhouettes to be seen. The bottom of the storm clouds are so close above them.

"Pull down the shades," Itami ordered.

They do so, and it turns pitch-dark. Despite the closed shutters, flashes of lightening as bright as the sun erupt. Roars of thunder are heard over the engines, causing the plane to vibrate.

"Are you sure we're safe in here, Sir Itami?" Yao asked uneasily. "What if we get struck by lightening?"

"Getting struck is not the problem," Youji answered. "Airplanes have been struck by lightening before, but manage to land safely. The real danger comes from the wind and hail. Sudden blasts of wind can knock the plane off course and hail can damage it."

"That's not very reassuring, Youji," Rory said grimly.

"What can I say, Rory?" Youji stated curtly. "We had a good day when we left Japan. And we simply didn't have the luxury of calling out to some air traffic controllers for the weather report."

The sound of the storm seems to increase in fury as more flashes are noted outside the window, and are soon answered with roars of thunder that vibrate the plane. A new sound is soon heard and it is one of pelting.

"I-I think those are hailstones!" Eric exclaimed over the din of the hailstorm.

'Hey guys! I think we see land!' Kamikoda announced in a quick and intense tone.

The pinging on the hull of the plane soon turns to banging. The sound of glass is heard cracking.

"If those windows break, the air will be sucked out of here!" Youji exclaimed. "Then we'll lose cabin pressure and crash!"

"I feel dents in the hull!" Eric exclaimed as he runs his hand over the inside of the plane's hull.

Every passing second inside the plane feels as if the next one might result in the destruction of it. Bright flashes of lightening flicker outside the windows every second to be instantly followed by explosions of thunder that temporarily drown out the combined din of the engines and the hail smashing against the plane.

"Oh shit!" Eric exclaimed. "What if the land's too rugged?!"

"Better rugged land than water because we won't risk drowning!" Youji exclaimed.

Glass crashes as hurricane force wind blows through the cabin. The roaring rush of air, along with the frequent crashes of thunder, drown out the screaming.

The wind suddenly stops and all is calm once again. In the darkness, they see Lelei with a glow around her and her hair softly billowing upward as if by a soft breeze. In fact, there is a faint glow about the whole place.

"I extended my shield onto the plane!" Lelei announced.

"Assume crash positions!" Youji shouted, compelling everyone to do so.

A minute later, there is a loud crash as the plane violently shudders from the impact with the ground, jarring everyone. Then it is a loud prolonged scraping. Lelei scowls slightly in the effort to keep her shield up. This violent jarring and scraping goes on for what seems to be hours.

Then it stops, showing that it had only been for several seconds. At first, nobody does anything as they simply sit in their respective seats in the darkness, trying regather their thoughts with only the sounds of rain, hail, and thunder to be heard.

A thud comes from the direction of the cockpit and its door is thrown wide open with one of the pilots standing there.

"Is everyone okay?!" Kamikoda yelled fretfully. "Commander . . . ?! Anyone?!"

The answer comes in the form of a small ball of light as bright as a lantern that appears between Lelei's outstretched hands as if she is about to clasp it, then lets it float up to one side out of the way. Kamikoda and Kurihama emerge from the cockpit.

"I . . . I think so," Youji called wearily. "Lelei's obviously okay, but what about the rest of you?"

"I'm okay, Youji," Rory groaned.

"I . . . I think I'm okay too!" Tuka called.

"I'm alright!" Yao called.

"Same here!" Eric groaned. "But did we land far enough from the ocean?"

"I'd say we crash landed half a kilometer inland," Kurihama said, "then probably skidded for a hundred meters."

"We managed to keep the plane steady and the nose up," Kamikoda added. "If we had not been able to do that, the plane would be in a thousand pieces by now and so would we."

"I also threw a shield up around the plane," Lelei added.

"I was wondering what that funky blue glow was around on the outside of the corners of the cockpit window," Kurihama mused. "Thank you, Lelei-chan." As he does a formal bow to her. Kamikoda also bows.

The others also thank her as well.

"So what do we do now?" Rory asked.

"Simple," Youji answered. "We spend the night here."

Lelei, Rory, Tuka, and Yao are standing side-by-side as they have their hands raised upward and pointing at a spot above them. A ripple appears in the air from the combination of Regular Magic, Spirit Magic, and Holy Magic. There is a brief flash of the interior hull walls and then a very soft glow.

"There," Lelei stated. "Now if lightening does strike us, it will not hurt us."

"A force field, thank you, Lelei-chan. Now then," Youji said, then raises his voice. "Hopefully tomorrow, it'll be a clear day because we all have a very long journey ahead of us. That means we need to be up before the sun, so we need to go to sleep ASAP. Lelei, can you put us all to sleep enmass?"

"I can only do that one-on-one," Lelei answered.

"I can put people to sleep enmass," Tuka said. "Just like back in Italica when we went to rescue you from the Rose Knights."

Once everyone readies their self, Tuka casts the enchantment of sleep and they are all asleep.

* * *

Arpeggio looks out the windows of a bookstore with a small ball of light hovering over her head. The interior of the bookstore is roomy with a desk in one corner and sofas elsewhere, giving it the impression of a meeting place. It is raining again as it had been raining on and off, at one point it was a downpour.

She recalls up to her moment coming in here.

It began to rain again when she entered this city. Fortunately, this store was within sight and she hurried over to unlocked it with her magic and entered before she got wet. She figured that this would be a good place to bed down for the night. In the meantime, she checked out what sort of books they have.

She had spent the day checking out the various books, but unable to read them. The picture ones she checked out. She had found one such book in a backroom, one of those soft ones composed mainly of images; then regretted finding it because it was full of graphic sexual images. More searching rewarded her with a cylinder that contained food. It was a strange food in that they were oval curved flat pieces of some sort of fried vegetable. That did not stop her from finishing off the whole cylinder. She also found a bottle of beverage and tasted it to find that it was fruit punch. She also found the privy as well.

She went back to searching throughout the books, mainly looking at the pictures. Pictures of various Humans, some of them with skin darker than a Dark Elf's. Some of them looking like Itami Youji's kind, and some looking like her kind. In fact, the images of people she had found throughout this city were mainly of people like herself. Humans did come from this world after all, so it meant that only her kind of Humans had entered the other world long ago.

Afterwards, she got curious about what was upstairs and went to check it out. She found an apartment and unlocked the door with her magic, then just as quickly closed the door as the smell of decaying flesh drove her back out.

Now, she walks over to one of the sofas with her light globe following her. She lies down on one of the sofas.

 _This seems comfortable_. She thought. _I should be able to get some sleep_.

Arpeggio puts her light out, plunging the interior into darkness. She lies there and cannot help but ponder the fact that a corpse is directly above her. It is not like its going to come to life and attack her, given that magic does not permeate this world. And she did not sense the presence of a ghost either, like she did in some of the other buildings around here. She had seen them looking at her through the windows. Lelei had informed her that they will come as soon as possible.

 _Just hurry up and come, Lelei_.


	7. Chapter 6

Dawn brightens the outside. One-by-one the gang awaken. The barrier is removed so that Youji can open the emergency door on the wing and everyone inhales the crisp fresh smell of the post-storm air.

Along with another smell.

"Phew, I think we must've hit a pile of corpses out there," Eric sneered.

The gang go outside. The sky is mostly clear with what few stars remaining until they are eventually concealed by sunlight. There are a small cluster of large trees next to a small building with concrete walls painted white but with a grey-painted base with steps leading up to a door, and a red roof with two chimneys protruding upward. It was a public toilet, but is now abandoned as the white painted boarded-up door and windows obviously show.

Moreover, there is only a couple of feet of space between that building and the nose of the plane.

"Now that was a close call," Youji said.

They next notice they had crash-landed in a flat triangular grassy area nestled within shrub-covered hills, save for one side where there is a paved road snaking along and rolling shrub-covered land beyond it. Their plane had dug deep gouges into the ground that stretch back for a thousand feet from where it had started on the road as skid marks clearly show.

"Strange," Kamikoda mused while looking all around. "There's no corpses around here. So where's that stink coming from?"

"Maybe it's coming from that building?" Kurihama suggested. "Perhaps a lot of corpses were disposed of in there and then boarded up?"

Rory walks up to the boarded up door and sniffs. "It's not coming from there. If anything, it's being carried on the wind from elsewhere."

"We'll probably discover where it's coming from," Youji said.

"Are we in Kal-ee-forn-yah, Eric?" Rory asked while looking around.

Eric looks around for a moment with a brief frown.

"I think we are," he answered as he looks back to her.

"How can you tell?" Rory asked.

"Well . . . California's basically dry; it even has a desert in its southern interior. Look at the vegetation around us. Even if it did rain last night, it shows it doesn't rain much around here."

Rory looks around. "You got a point there."

"Let's have breakfast," Youji said. "Then we collect our belongings and follow that road. Although I agree with Eric-san, I want to be absolutely sure that we really are in California before I contact General Hazama.

"We could go to higher ground," Tuka said, then points up those hills. "Look, there's a trail leading up."

"It doesn't lead directly up to a hill top," Youji dismissed. "So I think our best bet would be to simply follow that road and see what's around that bend."

* * *

Up in vacant Seattle, dawn also graces the eastern sky. Arpeggio awakens and sits up from having been asleep on that couch. She yawns after having managed to sleep most of the night away. It was due to a sleep spell she put herself under. There was no way she was going to fall asleep in a strange place in an even stranger land.

"Ugh . . . I guess I better get up," she groaned while lazily doing so. "Hope Lelei contacts me soon."

* * *

Back in California, the companions are on their way with their belongings as they walk up the road, uncertain of where it will lead them. The sun begins to rise. They do not travel far before they encounter a car parked upon the shoulder of the road that had been traveling down the opposite direction. They look in through the windows to see the decomposed driver lying across the backseat.

"It's a woman," Rory noted while looking in through the driver's side and shielding her eyes against the light to reduce the glare. "And from the looks of her, she's been dead for a long time."

"Obviously a victim of Hardy's Plague," Eric said.

"Why is the driver's side on the left and not the right?" Lelei asked.

"Because here in America, and up in Canada, we drive from the leftside," Eric answered.

"But why?"

"Well," Eric began while briefly rubbing his forehead with two fingers in thought, "if my memory serves me, it was back before the invention of the automobile, back in the time of horse drawn coaches and carriages. The coachman sat on the rightside so that they could handle their whip better." As he makes the motion with his right hand. "Unfortunately, I don't know why it switched to the leftside for automobiles here in America and Canada, or even for a lot of other countries for that matter. But in England, Japan, and some other countries, it remained on the rightside. You guys wouldn't happen to know why, would you?" Referring to Youji, Kamikoda, and Kurihama.

But they each admitted their own ignorance.

"Hopefully, we're not that far from a town," Youji said. "Once there, we search for a vehicle large enough to accomodate us all, then we can start looking for supplies."

They continue their walk.

They soon come upon what seems to be a hamlet, along with another road branching off to go up a hill to their right. They take notice of a sign of which Eric reads to them.

"Marin Headlands, Coastal Route, One Hundred and One." Pointing up that road branching off. "Tunnel Route, Fort Baker, One Hundred and One." Pointing down the road they are on. Next are the street signs perched atop a metal pole for those two roads. "Okay, this road were on is called, Bunker Road, and that road is called . . . I think it's pronounced . . . Mik-kull-uff?"

"What kind of name is that?" Tuka inquired.

"It's a surname," Youji explained. "Irish to be exact. People from Ireland, one of two hundred nations in this world. That street must be named after some Irish guy."

"In Japan, we name the intersections instead of the roads," Kurihama said.

"So which way should we go?" Lelei asked.

"I get the feeling that if we go that way," Rory answered, pointing up McCullough Road, "we will probably learn of where we are."

"But first, we need to find a truck or van that's large enough for us all," Youji said. "So we should search along those houses."

They begin their walk up the road called Bunker Road, carefully looking at the houses on either side of the road but not seeing any vehicles, let alone any suitable ones. They soon come upon another street leading up from Bunker Road called Lamoraux Drive.

"It seems that this place is smaller than we anticipated," Youji said.

They go up Lamoraux Drive to investigate the community upon the brushy hillside with deciduous trees planted amongst the properties. They search throughout the neighborhood, staring at the driveways of each house they walk past.

They end up searching the entire neighborhood until they find . . .

"Nothing," Youji groaned as he rubs the back of his head in frustration. "There isn't a single vehicle around."

"No doubt they all fled when Hardy's Plague was spreading," Kurihama said. "But of course, we know the difference now: it had already spread. This was simply its waking process."

"So what now?" Yao asked. "Should we search those houses for any supplies?"

"I don't think we'll find anything since the inhabitants fled," Youji said. "They would've packed everything but the kitchen sink."

Youji walks up to a house and tries a door, then returns to them. "Since that door is locked, the others might be as well, meaning that they believed they would be returning once this whole disaster had blown over."

"Why did they all run away when back in Japan people simply stayed in their houses and waited until this passed over?" Lelei asked.

"Cultural differences," Eric answered. "Here in America, people were more individualistic. It meant they were less likely to obey authority and more likely to do what they wanted. Also, America being a big country would have tempted them into fleeing because in a big country there are plenty of places to go."

"So where to next?" Tuka pondered.

"How about that road that Rory wanted to check out back there?" Youji said.

The gang return and go up McCullough Road. It winds upward and proves to be a long road. After almost half an hour of walking, they reach the top and encounter a roundabout with two paved roads leading away from it. Off to their right is a public toilet as it is a small building with a chimney. Eric soon notices something ahead off in the distance and keeps walking, prompting the others to walk with him. He stops on the other side of the roundabout, then rapidly turns to face the others approaching him with a satisifed smile.

"I was right, we are in California," Eric said, then points. "Because that over there is the Golden Gate Bridge, California's most important landmark."

"It has gates made of gold?" Yao mused.

"No, it's just a name," Eric chuckled. "It's a suspension bridge by the way."

"That's a suspension bridge?" Lelei remarked with awe as she looks at it. "Usually, they're small bridges of rope with wooden steps. I never thought something like that could be built."

"If a world possesses the technology, they will," Youji said.

"Is that a city over there?" Lelei asked.

"Yes," Eric answered. "It's called, San Francisco."

"Not a lot of towers over there," Rory mused. "Not like in Tokyo."

"I think we've just solved the mystery of the stench," Youji said dryly.

"Then why wasn't Tokyo awashed in the same stench?" Lelei asked.

"In the past whenever most people became serious ill from something that people would catch, they imposed self-isolation so as not to spread the disease," Youji answered. "Part of that was barring up their house."

"Then it obviously didn't happen here," Tuka said.

"Remember what I said about Americans earlier," Eric answered. "They had low respect for authority figures and were living in a country that beckoned with a lot of space. So when law and order crumbled, it crumbled with a vengeance. It seemed that for every person who died indoors, another or more died outdoors."

Youji looks around. "This looks like as good a place as any to contact General Hazama. But first, we should take turns at that washroom over there."

Once they finish with the public toilet, Youji takes out his tablet and sets it up, having fully charged it from before they left Japan. He successfully contacts General Hazama as he appears on the screen via Skype. The rest are gathered around.

"It is good to see the rest of you again," General Hazama said. "Are you guys outside?"

"General, listen to what I have to tell you," Youji said intently. "We got caught in a storm on the way over here and ended up crash landing."

"My God! Is everyone all right?!"

"Yes, we are," Youji continued. "But the thing is . . . we ended up being forced much further south from our destination. We're overlooking San Francisco. Look, there's the Golden Gate Bridge." As he turns the tablet around for the General to have a look at the bridge for a moment, then turns it back to himself. "We will be continuing north to our destination. All we have to do is find a vehicle large enough to take all eight of us."

"I understand. Let me figure out how far that is and how long it will take you all to get to Seattle." And brings up another screen that only Hazama can see. He studies that screen for a moment. "Okay, the distance between San Francisco and Seattle is thirteen hundred kilometers and will take over twelve hours to drive there."

"Then we will be there tomorrow afternoon, given the stops we might have to take," Youji said. "Lelei, can you contact your sister again?"

"Yes," she said eagerly. "And it should be a little easier this time since we are closer to her."

"Then do it," Youji said.

* * *

Back in Seattle, Arpeggio is once again searching throughout the abandoned city. She managed to find food in the form of canned goods and even opened some. It wasn't very appetizing, but it did the job, along with strange food wrapped in strange packaging.

Once again, she got that vivid mental image of Lelei staring closely into her face.

{Alfe}

"Ah, Lelei!" Arpeggio said aloud. "So where are you?"

{Listen. I got good news and bad news. The good news is that we flew over here on a plane yesterday and are here on this continent! The bad news is that we ran into a storm that forced us to fly too far south and crash near a city called San-fran-sis-ko. It's directly south of See-at-all. That's the name of the city you are in.}

"Ah, o-okay," Arpeggio answered with a mixture of relief and disappointment. "So how long will it take you to get here?"

{Hopefully, we should reach you by tomorrow. Then, we will find another plane and we can all fly back to Japan.}

Arpeggio sighs. "Very well . . . I'll be waiting."

{Did you encounter any survivors that have yet to make the journey?}

"Nope, it seems that I'm the only one in this city."

{Hang in there, Alfe. We're coming. See you soon.}

* * *

Lelei opens her eyes and sits up from lying across the picnic table with Rory, Yao, and Tuka around her.

"That's amazing," Eric mused. "You were actually able to talk to your sister?!"

"Yes," Lelei said.

"Okay, let's get going," Youji said.

They walk down a road leading toward San Francisco. Along the way, Eric tells them a fact about the city.

"Over one hundred years ago, there was a massive earthquake that destroyed the entire city."

"An earthshake?!" Tuka exclaimed.

"Yes, they happen all the time in this world," Youji said. "Just not all at once mind you, and some places almost never get them, probably only slightly if at all. Japan gets them a lot."

"So does California," Eric said. "In fact, California has a large fault line called the San Andreas Fault Line. They kept expecting the Big One."

"The Big One?" Lelei asked.

"It's supposed to be an earthquake that registers a ten. So far, the strongest quake was the San Francisco Quake, which registered a nine point six."

"Anotherwords, it was twice as powerful as the earthshake your world had experienced," Youji told the Special Area inhabitants, causing them to sweatdrop with awed glints in their eyes.

"And that was a strong shake too," Rory said with a hint of awe.

"It's worse when it happens under the ocean," Kurihama said.

"Oh, you mean those soo-nah-mees," Lelei pondered. "Youji showed us those on vid-ee-ohs."

"To think that the ocean can rise up and flow over land, washing everyone and everything away," Yao gasped.

"To think so indeed," Youji said.

* * *

 **Note: Google Map is a wonderful tool, especially the ground view mode.**


	8. Chapter 7

As they get closer to the Golden Gate Bridge, they start to notice details about it. Standing at a vantage point, they get a better view of just what those details are: those being a large black steel gate stretching across the mouth of the bridge, complete with military assets such as armored personnel carriers, trucks, jeeps, and tented command posts still standing.

"That is one militarized bridge," Eric said.

"It's the same way up there at the other end too," Tuka said as she points it out.

"Of course, it makes sense," Youji said sarcastically. "When the quarantine was put into effect, the military was called out in full force to impose it; which meant making sure nobody fled the city."

"So we'll just have to take one of those trucks down there and be gone, right?" Eric asked.

"Right," Youji verified.

They arrive at the military encampment.

"Those are huge gates," Eric said while staring up at the ten foot tall steel gates. "Strong looking too. I don't think anyone would've been able to leave the city this way. Though they might have taken the long way around."

"There was a gunfight here," Youji said as he stoops to pick up a bullet casing. There are a multitude of bullet casings scattered about the asphalt, with some of them having been flattened.

"There's also the smell of rot," Rory said. "Along with stale blood."

A search of the tents greet them with rows of occupied body bags.

"It looks like they all died from Hardy's Plague," Yao said.

"Not all of them," Rory called from around a truck.

They go over to investigate and are treated to the sight of four uniformed skeletons lying haphazardly about with flies buzzing about them. The odor of decay can still be smelt. They each have a bullet hole through their respective skeletal faces.

"Ugh, ghastly!" Eric groaned while covering his mouth and his irises shrinking. "I've never seen dead people shot up like that before!"

"That one was a sergeant, that one was a corporal, and the other two were privates," Youji said as he points them out. "These guys were combat ready, and still they were shot to death. First in the legs," noting their pants shredded from bullets, "and then each one got a bullet through their face. The scavengers came later to eat their fill."

"So some soldiers mutined then?" Eric said.

"Well it would have to have been a soldier to do that because who else could get their hands on an M60 and be able to target the unprotected areas of their bodies?" Youji answered. "Moreover, there are not enough shell casings to indicate that there was more than one mutineer. But they did empty their clip killing them though. In fact, I saw bullet casings from a forty-five handgun, which is what was used to shoot each soldier through the face."

"It means the mutineer wanted to be certain they were dead," Rory said.

"Right," Youji said. "Then they selected a truck, filled it with as many supplies as they could, and fled."

"Let's just pick a truck, find what we can, and get going," Eric stated impatiently. "Please."

They take only a couple of minutes to decide on a truck and find a supply trailer, then load it up with whatever essentials they could find. They discover that not as much stuff was taken as they had anticipated, meaning that the mutineer was in a hurry to make their getaway.

With everything set, they get in the vehicle, with Lelei driving and Eric alongside her so as to keep navigation, since he is the only one who can understand where to go.

They head north.

"We just might have to ditch this for a van down the road," Eric said. "The reason has to do with fuel. Civilian vehicles run on gasoline, while military vehicles run on diesel."

"Why is that so?" Lelei asked.

"Because military vehicles need to perform," Eric answered, "and that means the engines need to be more powerful. Diesel contains more power than gasoline. Unfortunately, since there are more gasoline engines than diesel engines, the gas stations will only have a single tank for diesel."

"But diesel is cleaner than gasoline," Youji countered. "It also lasts longer."

"Fine then, a bus maybe," Eric sighed. "The point is that you need a vehicle that's large enough for comfort. Even though this truck is designed to seat ten people, it's not meant for the kind of extended travel we need to do."

The highway is revealed to be empty. They come upon a set of tunnels up ahead.

"The Robin Williams Tunnel," Eric read the sign in front. "Ah, now I get it, that tunnel was named after that famous actor/comedian who commited suicide."

"Why did he kill himself?" Rory asked.

"At first it was believed to be depression," Eric explained, "but it was later found out that he was suffering from a terminal disease that was slowly killing him."

"Then he met his death on his own terms," Rory said.

"A lot of people would disagree on that," Eric said.

The tunnels are not that long as they can see daylight at the end of them ever before they enter. They pass through them without incidence, and out onto the other side, continuing down the highway toward their destination.

As expected, their route does have vehicles parked alongside the road at various intervals. Sometimes they are stalled on the highway. All of them occupied by the decomposed corpses of their drivers and passengers, showing that they had sickened and died from Hardy's plague during their flight to wherever they believed they could find safety.

They pass through a place called Marin City and already they can see more vehicles around, along with various buildings that had been burned or damaged. There are also various items scattered around the place.

So far, they have yet to encounter any traffic that would impede their progress.

"Lelei, slow down!" Eric said eagerly as he held a hand up momentarily while looking elsewhere, prompting Lelei to do so, then points. "There's two gas stations over there. We can fill our fuel cans at either of them; so get ready to turn right."

They reach the turnoff and Lelei does so, pulling up to one of the gas stations in question. The rest of the gang pile up at the front between Eric and Lelei.

"I think we might have trouble finding something in there," Youji said with a frown and a large sweatdrop.

Everyone gets out and stares at the gas station with its broken out windows and doors with shards of glass lying about. The pumping stations have their hoses lying about. Youji walks up to one of them and tests it to see that it has been tapped out. He looks over at the other gas station nearby, noting that it too is in no better shape. Then looks over at a lone pumping station on the property.

"At least the diesel one still seems to be working," he said while staring at the diesel tank with its hose still in it.

"Then let's get to work filling them up," Eric said as he removes one of the gas cans from the side. Kamikoda removes the other. Together, they help Youji fill up the cans as he operates the pump. Once they finish their task, Eric looks at the store.

"Let's go check out the interior anyway," he said.

They enter and are confronted by a vandalized interior, complete with empty shelves and sheets of paper crumpled and scattered about on the floor, dyed an ominously deep red like the rows of skid marks. There are also shell casings to be seen and the uniformly small holes in the walls. Eric picks up a bullet casing.

"Blood was spilt in here," Rory said. "Lot's of blood."

"Then those are bullet holes I take it," Eric said as he drops the bullet casing.

"Hey, look," Kurihama said while pointing upward at a camera. "If there were a way we could get the power going, we could see how bad it got."

"I think I can help with that," Lelei said.

"You can create electricity?" Youji mused.

"Yes."

They find the office and its camera recorder. Lelei invokes a bit of electricity and touches the plug. The screen comes on to reveal four views. Youji notes the date and time within the corner that it last recorded was several months ago. It looks pretty calm. He rewinds it back to the beginning.

"Incredible!" Yao gasped. "A device that can record actions that took place."

"But it cannot record sound with it," Youji explained.

"It all looks pretty normal," Eric said.

"That's because it's back to when it was only heard of," Youji answered. "Notice the date in the corner?" As he points it out. "Here, I'll speed it up to next month."

The recording of human activity within the store speeds along at a very rapid pace. Gradually, the numbers of people increase. Youji slows it down. They watch in normal speed as seemingly a hundred people are rushing about the aisles, stuffing items hurriedly into their baskets and heading to the counter. The clerk is rushing to keep up with them.

"Look," Youji said as he points at the corner. "That's the date when Hardy's Plague was first reported to have gone global."

Youji speeds up the recorder. Within the day cycle, the number of people keep increasing until they fill all the aisles. Youji lets the recording go at normal speed once again and it seems as if hundreds more people were rushing throughout the store, snatching up more items, jostling with other patrons.

Fights start breaking out.

"They're desperate now," Yao noted.

It is at that point that they watch the clerk lose his cool and take a shotgun out from underneath his counter; only to get shot by a man who was faster on the draw with a handgun. The clerk falls backward and the shooter gets up on the counter and aims downward at the unseen clerk to fire two more shots. The shooter raises his arms and that is when a full blown riot breaks out as items are indiscriminately snatched and carried away.

"Poor guy," Eric said empathetically. "And all he was trying to do was protect his store and keep order."

"That's what happens when order crumbles," Rory said. "Here at least, since no evidence of that had happened back in Japan."

Youji speeds the recording along through the images of looting. He lets it go as the shelves become bare. That does not prevent more people from entering to ransack the place in the effort to find anything else that might have been overlooked. Some do find some things, but the others do not.

That is when the windows suddenly explode inward and people take a dive.

"I think that's the military showing up," Kurihama said.

Cannisters go flying through the windows and the interior fills with smoke. Soldiers soon enter wearing gas masks and shoot everyone. Youji speeds the recording along once again so that the soldiers are next moving the bodies out. Soon, there is no one left, even with the fastforward on.

"I think that's enough," Youji said as he stops the fastforward and shuts it off, prompting Lelei to release her spell.

They leave the station and check out the other gas station to find that it too had suffered the same level of damage and bloodshed as the other. They don't bother to check the security camera recordings to verify this. It is in this gas station that Eric notices a large book lying under the counter and takes it.

"Hey guys, look what I found," he said as he holds it aloft. "A North American road atlas."

"Great," Youji said. "Now we can know in better detail of the route we are to take."

"I need some more light," Eric said while bending over it. "Lelei."

Lelei conjurns a small ball of light and makes it hover above Eric. He opens the altas to the first page that shows the map of the United States of America."

"Wow, what a detailed map!" Yao gasped.

"Look at the system of roads!" Tuka added with wonderment.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Eric said.

"So where is the capital of Ah-meer-ee-kah?" Rory asked.

"There," Eric said as he points it out on the Atlantic seaboard. "It's called Washington D.C."

"That's a long distance," Lelei mused.

"It also has the same name as the state of Washington," Kamikoda mused.

"Well, they're both named after the first President of the United States, George Washington," Eric said. "Now then," as he turns the pages to find California, where San Francisco is, and finds it. He looks around for something and finds a retractable pen, "we should be somewhere around here." As he traces the retracted tip around the area just north of San Francisco. He next searches for a map of Oregon and also traces a route along a highway. Lastly, is the search for the map of the Washington state. He stares at that part for a moment.

"Okay, here's the plan," Eric announced as he shows them each page. "We can use that highway we were traveling upon up until we reach Astoria, a town in Oregon but next to the state of Washington."

"And then what?" Yao asked.

"That highway then goes far out of its way from Seattle, so we'll need to take another highway instead, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Eric answered. "Literally. Astoria is alongside a river named Columbia, which serves as the border between Oregon and Washington."

"That's a simple plan," Lelei said.

"Simple, but not easy," Eric answered. "We may end up having to deal with the usual post-apocalyptic shit in the form of washed out roads and bridges, or traffic jams that make highways impassable."

"Or people gone vicious, if these gas stations are of any indication," Youji added glumly.

"I don't think that will be a problem since there's probably nobody still left here now," Kamikoda said. "Remember the thousands of people that made it across the Pacific Ocean from over here?"

"I see what you mean, Kamikoda-san," Youji said. "And yet there is the possibility that one person could still be over here."

They leave and are soon on their way up Route 101. They continue to encounter stationary vehicles, most of which are parked on the shoulder of the highway.

"I don't know about the rest of you," Kurihama said, "but it seems as if there's not as many cars, trucks, or vans as I was expecting there to be."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Youji agreed. "In post-apocalyptic entertainment, highways would be shown clogged with vehicles that seem to go on forever."

"I think I may know why that is," Eric said. "I've been looking over the map of California and I noticed something." As he hands the atlas back to Youji to read, the others crowd around to look. "Those places I circled," referring to the areas around and near the San Francisco Bay.

"What about them?" Youji asked.

"They're military assets."

"Now it makes sense," Youji said with understanding. "Whenever a government has its military assets built within cities, it means the military base located there can swiftly blockade that city."

"Isn't that just common sense?" Rory asked rhetorically. "I mean, military bases are always located within cities."

"In your world, yes," Youji explained. "But in this world, it's unnecessary because law and order was efficiently spread throughout the land. It probably explains why we haven't encountered as much traffic as we had anticipated."

"And given the stench wafting from San Francisco," Eric said, "it must also mean the city must look like a war zone. It's what happens when people, especially Americans, end up feeling trapped: they'll lash out."

"And we're going to be seeing more of that evidence as we travel further onward," Youji said.


	9. Chapter 8

The morning progresses as the gang continue traveling upon their designated route north. Vehicles litter the highway, many still occupied, of which Lelei had to navigate around. So far, they were not impeded in their journey. True to Youji's prediction, as they pass through hamlets and villages they briefly encounter vandalism and looting that most, if not all, Americans indulged in as their country fell apart.

"Eureka. City Limit," Eric read aloud as they approach the sign while close to noon. "Population, twenty-eight thousand six hundred and six. Elevation, forty-four."

They drive into the city, witnessing the same mess; only this time the vehicles nearly clog various points so that Lelei has to weave around them. They come upon a huge parking lot up ahead with a McDonald's nearby, but a shopping mall beyond it.

"Let's stop here," Rory said.

"Why?" Youji asked.

"I wanna check that place out," Rory said as she points to the McDonald's.

"For something to eat?" Eric mused. "We have supplies in the back for that."

"I know it's just," Rory said as she trails off.

"We get it, you're curious," Youji smirked. "Well, it is close to noon so we should stop and have something to eat anyway. Even stretch our legs for a while."

"I'm also curious about that place over there too," Lelei said as she points to the shopping mall in the immediate background.

Lelei shuts off the humvee and everyone gets out. They walk up to the McDonald's and look inside through the windows first.

"Father, is it like that place you took us to for something to eat when we first entered this world?" Tuka asked while peering inside with the others.

"Pretty much," he answered as he walks forward, compelling the others to fall in pace. "Although this place serves American food instead of Japanese food."

"Father?" Eric mouthed at Youji.

"It's complicated," Youji whispered quickly as he waves dismissively with a large sweatdrop and closed eyes.

"Anyway, to those of you from the other world, it was called fast food," Eric said.

"Fast food?" Lelei asked.

"It means it was prepared quickly, in minutes even," Eric answered. "Unfortunately, they were loaded with fat, salt, sugar. Unhealthy at that. But that still didn't stop millions of people from eating at these places within any given year."

"Why?" Tuka asked.

"Because it was cheap and quick, that's why," Eric said.

They enter the McDonald's, mindful of the glass on the floor. In the dim interior, tables and chairs had been turned over and posters torn off the walls to lie on the floor. About the only thing not wrecked is the overhead menu, which shows various types of hamburgers to be ordered along with french fries, salads, desserts, and drinks.

"Is that the type of food they served?" Rory asked while staring up at the menu.

"Yes it was," Eric answered. "Those are called hamburgers, named after a city called Hamburg, in Germany, in Europe, where they were first invented."

The gang search throughout the place, only to find more acts of vandalism.

"Let's go and have some of our rations before we go and check out that shopping mall," Youji said.

"Rations indeed," Kamikoda said dryly. "They just might be the only food left on this continent."

After finishing their rations, the gang walk up to that shopping mall named, Bayshore Mall, as its sign nearby reads. The huge parking lot has what looks to be more than forty vehicles still there, many of which had crashed into each other and many still have their dead and rotted occupants still within them. Car trunks had been popped open and their interiors empty. There are shopping carts scattered about, many of which are mangled after having been runned over, along with whatever stolen goods that were abandoned. Their perpetual exposure to the elements have given them the impression of looking like garbage.

There are also spent bullet casings to be found.

"I guess the military didn't get up this far," Youji said. "Those bullet casings don't look like standard military issue."

"They probably died off before they could do anything up this way," Kamikoda suggested.

They arrive at the entrance to survey the damage. The entrance, composed of glass set within metal framing, lies in pieces on the floor with its frames twisted and buckled.

"A vehicle was used," Youji said as he winces at the damage. "A truck possibly because the damage looks to be much bigger than what a car could do."

"Then they backed out and everyone stormed the place to take what they could," Kurihama said.

"I smell stale blood," Rory said.

They enter the dark interior. Lelei conjures up a light ball and sends it hovering above them as they walk into the cavernous interior. The light reveals a vandalized mess of an interior as all of the store spaces had their partitions wrecked and lying on the floor, along with shopping carts scattered about and whatever spoils that had been dropped and abandoned. Several skeletal corpses lie in various areas, each within their own large pool of coagulated blood. They wince at the smell of decay throughout the place as they look around.

"More death and destruction," Kamikoda said glumly.

"I think this place was picked clean," Kurihama said.

"Thousands of people must have swarmed through this place," Yao said with a hint of awe. "Tens of thousands."

"Stealing food I can understand," Lelei said, "but why steal the rest of the merchandise?"

"Because they could," Rory answered. "Although I'm surprised to see that happen here, despite what Eric had told us earlier."

"What do you mean, Rory?" Eric asked.

"About how Ah-meer-ee-kans tend to be rebellious against authority."

"Oh yeah, that's right. But it wasn't just Americans, I'm pretty sure it went on up in Canada as well. It's because the institutions that oversaw law and order were no longer able to function and keep the people in check. So when law and order collapsed, the masses no longer feared retribution from the authorities and acted out their dark desires that those impersonal institutions had restrained them from indulging in for so long. First, they went for the food, then medicines. Next, they turned their attention to whatever was still available; even if they didn't need it. They also end up killing anyone who got in their way, and might have even killed for fun too."

"That aside, this is pretty convenient though," Lelei said. "Putting all the markets in here under one roof."

"That it is," Eric mused.

Eric next walks up to a store and stands in the threshold, prompting the others to follow him. Lelei's light floats in past them and hovers above them to cast light around the interior to reveal empty shelves and bins to them, along with whatever merchandise left lying around on the floor trampled. Cash registers were smashed open and left empty.

"War-mart?" Youji read the overhead name.

"Yep, this is a Walmart," Eric said. "The most popular store chain in America."

"Why is this place so big when the shelves are so short?" Yao asked. "I've seen it with the PX store back in Alnus."

"I've also noticed that with that clothes store we went to the first time we came into this world," Tuka said.

"It's to give the illusion that these buildings are full of goods," Youji answered. "That way people end up getting curious about what they might find inside it."

"Pretty good ploy," Rory mused. "Let's go and check out the rest of this place."

They leave with Lelei's light following them from up above. They come upon a crumpled up magazine of which Yao picks up and fixes to make it more presentable, then flips through it for a moment.

"What's it about?" Youji asked.

Yao holds up the magazine to show off the cover to the others. Tuka blushes intensely as she squeaks with shock and winces. The others sweatdrop with an uneasy frown, though Lelei makes that squinty cold-eyed frown whenever she encounters something that displeases her. On its cover are a man and woman engaging in sexual activity, showing it to be pornography.

"Oh ho," Rory mused. "So this world has portraits of sex as well."

"Master had a book with drawings like that," Lelei said coldly. "Until I burned it."

"This makes me realize something," Eric said. "Since we will be evacuating to that world with our high technology in tow, I suspect that pornography might end up becoming more varied over there, what with the non-Humans and all."

"I see what you're getting at," Youji said dryly with a large sweatdrop, then turns serious. "We need to stick to the task at hand. Yao, drop that please."

Yao does so and falls in pace with them.

"Speaking of sex," Eric then said, "are there interspecies relationships?"

"Yes, there are," Lelei answered. "The Warrior Bunnies engage in it big time because they almost always birth females. They are able to interbreed with the males of any sapient species."

"No kiddin'," Eric mused. "So they're a race of half breeds?"

"No, Warrior Bunnies always produce fully Warrior Bunnies."

"What about half-Elves?" Eric asked.

"There are some, but it depends," Yao answered this time.

"Depends on what?" Eric asked.

"It depends upon the race of Elf their parent is," Yao answered. "If their parent is a High Elf, the half-Elf in question will have the ability to choose to fully become either a High Elf or their other parent's heritage."

"We call it the Choice," Tuka added. "It may be delayed, but not forever because the urge to make the Choice grows stronger over time. They're also sterile during their time as a half-High Elf. And once the Choice is invoked, they cannot change; even if they wanted to. Most such half-Elves choose to become a High Elf."

"Humph, I don't blame them," Eric said dryly with a sarcastic droopy eyed smile with a large sweat drop. "If I were a half-High Elf, I would choose to become a full High Elf too." Then looks to Yao with a curious expression. "So what about half-Dark Elves then?"

"They do not have such a privilage and are eternally half-Dark Elf," Yao answered. "They're also fertile, so it's possible to have a non-Dark Elf with a drop of Dark Elf blood, or even a Dark Elf with a drop of non-Dark Elf blood. All-in-all, half-Elves of any sort are rare because we cannot spend the rest of our lives with a lover who is a member of any shorter lived race."

"Because you will end up outliving them," Eric said.

"Then there are us Demigods who will live forever," Rory said.

Youji had been listening quietly to this conversation. He gets a thought about it.

 _I think I might know why High Elves and Dark Elves don't get along. And I bet it's the fault of the Dark Elves because they would envy such a privilage_.

That is when Youji has a thought.

"Rory."

"Yes, Youji?"

"Can Demigods have children of their own?"

"No, we're sterile."

"I suspected as much."

"Now as for the gods themselves . . . ? Well, that's complicated. They can choose to impregnate a mortal, but not the way you expect them to."

"No, I guess not."

They walk throughout the shopping mall. They make a quick visit to other stores to find them also looted. They even check out a restaurant to see that the pantries and refridgerator are empty. Pharmacies are also searched. They come upon a grocery store and check throughout the place. As expected, nothing edible is to be found. They do a search of the food court and are met with the same results.

"You know," Eric began, "in post apocalyptic stories, survivors find food in abandoned shopping malls. But the reality is they find nothing. At least for those who come later, like us."

"Well," Youji began, "as the nations the world over were failing, the first to fail was the foundation of any civilization: the production and distribution of food. So by the time chaos had fully set in, especially over here in America, nearly all of the food that was out there was consumed. And now what's left out there has probably rotted, save for the preserved foods that is, like military rations."

"Then whoever might still be here is going to have a tougher time than anyone could anticipate," Kurihama said.

They enter a store called Victoria's Secrets. There are female manniquins busted up and scattered about, with racks knocked over and mirrors shattered. Dressing room doors had been either broken down or left open. Save for one that is closed with large drops of blood leading up to it and blood stains on it.

"So this place got pillaged too," Rory said. "Ooh, wait!" As her tone turned delighted.

Rory goes behind a counter and picks something up. She holds it aloft and stretches it out to show that it is a black thong.

"Ooh, and it's in my size too," Rory mused.

"Thank you for that wonderful image that's now stuck in my head," Eric said sarcastically, then turns. "What about the rest of you ladies? Would either of you wear something like that?"

"Possibly," Yao said curiously.

"Maybe," Tuka added.

Lelei says nothing but makes a squinty flat-eyed frown at Eric.

"There's somebody behind that door," Rory said as she walks up to the dressing room door with a dried bloodstain on it, then tries the handle. "And I get the feeling that they have a story to tell us."

"A story to tell us?" Youji mused.

The door is locked, but a glow appears around the handle as Rory uses her Holy Magic, causing the doorknob to unlock. She opens it, revealing the decomposed corpse of a man in security uniform slumped across a seat as if attempting to lie down while facing the door. There is a dried crusted pool of blood on the floor directly underneath it.

"He was shot," Youji said grimly. "But he managed to lock himself in here before bleeding to death."

"Hey, what's that in his lap?" Rory asked as she reaches out and picks it up.

"It's a digital recorder," Youji said, then holds his hand out. "Let me see it for a moment."

Rory hands it to him and Youji pushes some buttons to cycle through it until he finds what he is looking for. On it they can hear the pained weak voice of a man speaking while the sounds associated with looting and rioting are heard in the background, broken by the sound of gunfire every now and again.

"I-It's a madhouse out there {Cough!} . . . Th-There must be at least . . . ten thousand looters out there . . . and many are armed to the teeth {Cough! Cough!} . . . So much . . . So much for the state of emergency . . . So much . . . for martial law {Cough!} . . . Too many cops and soldiers are dead or dying {Cough! Cough! Cough!} . . . Argh . . . I'm gonna die . . . I know it . . . And not from the Brazilian Flu . . . My wife and kids got it, but I didn't {Cough! Cough!} . . . I'm . . . making this statement to those born after this {Cough!}. . . Things went to Hell in a handbasket . . . Chaos took over . . . Argh {Cough!}. . . ! S-So tired . . . And cold . . . Gonna . . . pass out soon . . . Then {cough!} die . . . Goodbye."

The message ends and Youj turns off the digital recorder, then places it back on the corpse. There is a moment of silence.

"I think it's time we leave and continue our journey to Arpeggio," Youji next said.


	10. Chapter 9

They drive out of Eureka, with Youji in the driver's seat. As expected, they continue passing stationary vehicles.

Tuka takes out her lute.

"So you can play, eh?" Eric mused.

"We Elves are a musical species, even more so than Humans," Tuka said as she is setting up her lute.

"What are you going to play?" Eric asked.

"About traveling," Tuka answered as she strums on her lute to get the proper tune, then begins to play and sing in earnest.

Her song induces a sense of serenity in all who hear. Fantasies of forested mountains during either a clear night with a full moon, a misty overcast twilight, or even a clear dawn with a lake nearby. Fantasies of a hazy afternoon with vast grassy fields as far as the eyes can see, broken by periodic small groups of trees.

Tuka plays for awhile. In time, she finishes.

"That," Eric gasped, "was so beautiful! That was amazing!"

"Would you believe that nobody actually taught her?" Youji said. "Elves don't learn the way we do. For them, learning how to sing or play a musical instrument is like us learning how to walk. Nobody teaches them."

"I . . . see," Eric mused. "Could it be because they live so much longer than us and are able to take their time about all of it?"

"Yes, it is," Tuka said.

"Whereas most Humans won't live to be a hundred years old so we have to cram as much knowledge and skills into ourselves and others as possible," Eric said, then sighs. "It's a pity that we're not long lived as well."

"If we were," Youji said, "then I doubt we Humans would have become as advanced as we currently are. Being short lived compels us to learn as much as we can and put that knowledge to use as soon as possible before we die."

They continue driving along the Route 101. It is then that Tuka speaks up about something that she sees out the windows.

"Forests."

"What?" Youji asked.

"There are more forests," Tuka answered. "There have been for quite some time now. Back around that San-fran-sis-ko and even as we were traveling earlier, there were few in the way of trees, mainly grasslands. But now, there are many more trees. Forests even."

"She's right," Yao added.

"That's because of the Japanese Current," Kamikoda explained. "It is an ocean current that starts over in Japan and travels across the Pacific to run down the entire western coastline of North America. It starts off as a warm current but eventually cools as it reaches California."

"What does that have to do with forests?" Tuka asked.

"Plenty," Kurihama answered. "Whenever winds blow over a warm current, it too grows warm and ends up picking up moisture from that warm current. As that moisture ladened wind reaches land, especially mountainous land, it forms into clouds and rains. The further inland it goes and up the mountains it goes, the more it rains; until it has emptied its rain. Now if a current is cold, the air blowing above it will be cooled. Cold air is drier, therefore it won't rain as much."

"Now I understand," Yao said in a eureka manner. "The Japanese Current is still warm this far north, so more rain falls to nourish trees."

"Exactly," Kurihama said.

"Hey, Tuka, Yao," Eric called as he turns to them. "Are elves suppose to have a connection to forests?"

"Yes," Tuka and Yao answered intently and simultaneously.

"Then you two will probably love the Pacific Northwest Coast," he explained. "It is the wettest of places on Earth. The climate is moderate and snowfall is rare. It is a place of temperate rainforests, places that have the highest diversity of plant and animal life. We will be driving through those areas as we head into Oregon."

"Wow, that sounds wonderful!" Tuka gasped as her ears twitch.

"At least what hasn't been cut down to make way for cities and towns that is," Eric said glumly. "Yet there still are areas where pristine forests of cedar trees and redwood still stand. I think we'll soon be driving through Redwood National Park."

Sure enough they reach it as the sign by the road shows. Tuka and Yao stare at the forest of tall thick redwood trees alongside the highway.

"Wow, they're different from the trees I'm used to," Tuka said with wonderment. "These are evergreen trees. Our forest has leafy trees."

"As does the Schwartz forest," Yao said. "There are evergreen forests back in our world, but they tend to be further north."

"As it is so on Earth," Eric said. "In fact, most of Canada's forests are evergreens."

They continue to drive onward as they pass more stationary vehicles. By afternoon, they encounter something.

"Welcome to Oregon," Eric announced as he reads the sign upon their approach.

Everyone looks to see the sign welcoming them to Oregon and drive past it.

"So we're in Or-ee-gone now?" Rory asked.

"Yes we are," Eric answered. "I think it's in this state we will rest for the day. Where . . . ? I guess until it gets too late to continue or we find some place that looks good."

They continue driving as the day grows ever later, passing more abandoned vehicles; both occupied and not. They also pass through more ghost towns. Despite the potential buildings they could search through, they want to be in Seattle as soon as possible. At times, they drive through areas where there are no communities for miles around, just coniferous forest.

Through one such place with nothing but coniferous trees for miles around, they come upon another humvee, also pulling a trailer like their own, parked upon the side of the road.

"Let's pull over and take a brief look," Youji said as he slows. "Eric."

"Fine," he sighed.

Once they are up alongside the humvee, Eric gets out and looks in through the cab while shielding his eyes to drown out the glare. He stares through that window for several seconds longer, then gets back inside with the others and shuts the door.

"There's only one in there," he said. "A man, and he's clearly military. And he obviously died from Hardy's Plague."

"He must have been the one who killed his comrades back there," Rory said.

"No doubt about it," Eric agreed. "Because he's also cradling a rather large handgun, a 45 I believe."

"Should we take what we can from that other trailer?" Yao asked.

"No, we got plenty," Youji said as he shifts gears to go. "That and where are we going to store the rest of it? And no, we can't assign one of the others to drive the humvee to follow, unless one of you likes the smell of decaying flesh that has permeated its interior."

They continue their journey.

It is late in the evening with the sun an hour away from setting as they drive along a section of the Route 101 that gives them a clear and unobstructed view of the Pacific Ocean.

"It's strange to see the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean instead of rising," Youji said. "It will also soon be sunrise over in Japan as well. We should find a place for the night."

"What about that house over there?" Eric answered as he points to the right.

In the distance over a relatively flat terrain covered with rust colored grass, they see a house nestled in front of a small cluster of trees.

"Yeah, that should do," Youji answered casually as he suddenly slows and then turns to drive toward that house in question, over a grassy plain.

"Whoa! Shouldn't we find a road first?" Eric exclaimed.

"It's okay, Eric-san," Youji assured. "Military vehicles are designed to handle off-road."

Eric calms as he soon discovers that they are driving over the ground. They cross over a paved road and arrive at that house, with Youji pulling up into its driveway to face north. He turns off the engine and they get out to look the house over.

"It doesn't look vandalized," Rory said. "Even thought it can be seen from the highway."

They walk up to the entrance and Youji tries the handle, which opens.

"The door was jimmied open," Youji said as he examines the doorframe to see deep scratches and mushed wood.

"So somebody was here," Rory said.

They enter the dim interior.

"I don't smell any rotting corpses," Youji said. "At least not yet. When Lelei and I checked for Kuribayashi's sister, we didn't smell anything until we attempted to enter her bedroom."

They search throughout the house checking out rooms, but do not find any corpses. Not even the smell of such, meaning that no one had been here even back when scavengers had broken in. A search of the kitchen turns up nothing edible, showing that the scavengers were clearly after food.

The gang gather in the living room as the day grows dimmer and Lelei sends a ball of light to hover overhead.

"So what should be done about our sleeping arrangements?" Tuka asked. "There are two bedrooms, but only one of them has a double bed. There are also these couches." Referring to the regular one and the love seat.

"Lelei, Rory, you get the double one," Youji was quick to answer, knowing that either Lelei, Rory, Tuka, and possibly Yao would want to sleep next to him. This nipped a potential conflict in the bud. "Tuka, you can have the bed."

"And where will you sleep, hmm?" Rory asked mischieviously.

"I think I'll sleep on that couch," Youji answered.

Eric walks over to the couch in question of which Kamikoda, Kurihama, and Yao are seated upon. "Could you move for a moment? I want to check something out."

The three do so and Eric removes the cushions.

"Ah ha," Eric proclaimed. "This has a bed in it."

And he pulls it out, unfurling it to prove his point. It has its own mattress and is wide enough to sleep two.

"What about this one, Eric?" Tuka asked as she and Rory get up off the love seat. Eric checks that one out.

"Sorry, this one doesn't fold out," Eric said.

"Then I guess I'll take the love seat," Youji was quick to state.

"This chair is a recliner," Eric said as he pushes it backward to fold outward. "I will sleep on this."

"Then Kurihama and myself will take the couch bed," Kamikoda said.

"I can sleep on the floor," Yao said. "I've slept on hard ground before."

"With all of that settled, we should prepare for bed," Youji said. "I want us to be up when dawn is bright enough, but before sunrise, so that we can be on our way by sunrise."

The companions do so as they brush their teeth and take turns using the bathroom in the place, given that the plumbing still works. By the time the twilight is faint, they are already bedding down in their respective places, with Yao using the cushions of the bed couch for added comfort. Blankets and pillows are found as well.

"It's usually hard to fall asleep in unfamiliar surroundings," Youji said. "Tuka, help us sleep. I want us to be up at dawn."

Once everyone is bedded down comfortably and declare it such, Tuka sends the sleep spell throughout the house, causing everyone to fall asleep.

* * *

Arpeggio has a light hovering over her head, which follows her as she walks around inside of that bookstore once again, despite there being a corpse upstairs.

She had spent the day exploring what she could of this city, See-at-all. The doors of the various buildings were locked, but that did not stop her as she used her magic on them. She smirked over how easy it was to open those doors. In Rondel, locks are warded. The only places she checked were the ones that had no occupants because those that were still occupied drove her out with their stink. At the first unoccupied apartment she entered, she forgot that she was not suppose to open any of those refridgerators, only to remember when the stench billowed out. Within the unoccupied ones she found little in the way of food in the pantries. As the day grew later, she returned to that bookstore because she found it to be an interesting place.

Now, Arpeggio is fixing out that couch with sheets she had found in an unoccupied apartment, then lies down on the sofa and covers up. She puts out her light for another night of sleep.

* * *

Yao awakens to see that it is still dark. She sits up and looks around to see Eric, Kamikoda, and Kurihama are fast asleep where they lie. She gets up on her knees to look out through the eastern window that she was sleeping under to see the brightening twilight beyond the trees.

 _Sir Itami had said that he wanted to be up at dawn_. Yao thought.

She gets up to go and wake Youji, but instead does a double take at the west window over something that had caught her attention. She peers intently out the west window at the source of her attention, then shatters the silence by shouting, "Wake up! The humvee's gone! Wake up!"

* * *

 **Note:**

 **They are in a place called Ophir, at a house at the corner of Ophir Road and Cedar Valley Drive**.


	11. Chapter 10

In the dimness of the ever brightening dawn, Youji and the gang stare at the empty spot where their humvee and trailer had been.

"My halberd was in there," Rory bemoaned.

"So was my staff," Lelei said. "But let me verify something." As Lelei creates a ball of light. She drops it and it starts rolling toward the ocean. "I created that ball to be sensitive to angles." Then snaps her fingers and it vanishes.

Youji groans as he tilts his head down and pinches his nosebridge for a moment.

"Okay," he began as he looks up the road with arms akimbo. "It's obvious another survivor was around here yesterday, and probably more than one too, and was watching us from a hiding place. And while too scared to go to us, they were still bold enough to steal our humvee and trailer. Furthermore, whoever they were didn't put the humvee into neutral, but simply started it up and drove away as fast as they could. And since I didn't hear anything last night, I can also assume that none of you did either. Isn't that right, Yao." As he glares at the Dark Elf, who wilts under his disapproving gaze. "Well? Why is it that you didn't sense whoever it was who took our humvee while you were able to sense those men back in that village we paid a visit to?"

"I-It only works if I'm anticipating that someone else might be around," the Dark Elf explained fretfully. "And my being in a deep sleep might have also played a role too."

"I-I just wanted to make sure all of us slept without interruption," Tuka answered with a close-eyed smile of unease as a large sweatdrop graces her forehead. "So I may have put us into an even deeper sleep."

"So what do we do now?" Eric asked.

"Track them," Rory answered.

"How?" Eric asked.

"Through my halberd. I can see what looks like a glittering golden trail of mist leading to it. It goes up that road."

"If that's the case, then we're going to have to walk," Youji answered. "Hopefully, we can find a vehicle up along the way. So let's get something to eat and get going. It's a good thing we brought in some rations yesterday for our breakfast."

After eating a quick breakfast, they are soon walking up the road with Rory in the lead. They come upon a bridge that has trees lining either side of the embankment of a creek for as far as it stretches. They notice a dark blue four-doored car that had ran off the road and is at a diagonal.

"I bet whoever the thief was came in that car," Kamikoda said.

"And I bet you're right," Youji said. "More like they spotted us as they were driving up the road yesterday as we crossed over and ran their self off the road in the effort to hide, then waited for us to bed down."

"And then they abandoned it when they saw our trailer," Eric added. "Between the time it would take to unhitch the trailer and the weight of it, they ditched their car in favor of our humvee."

"They also probably took the keys out of them too," Kurihama said.

"I should've taken the keys out of the humvee then locked it up," Lelei said.

"None of us could've anticipated that another survivor was going to come along and steal the humvee," Youji said.

"Whoever they were, they were desperate," Kurihama said. "After all, they didn't reveal their self to us and waited until we were all asleep."

"I really hope that we catch up to whoever stole our humvee," Eric grumbled.

"Especially me," Rory added as she fumed. "I'll enjoy teaching them the consequences of what happens when you steal from a Demigod."

"I don't think they know about you," Eric said. "Otherwise, they would've been too scared to steal the humvee in the first place."

"Hmm, you have a point there, Eric," Rory surmised.

They arrive at the car in question and Youji touches the hood. "Engine's cold, and the tire tracks are fresh too." As he stares at the wheels, then looks to the others. "You were right, Kamikoda-san, they did come in this car."

Lelei tries the door to find it locked. She uses a simple spell and the doors unlock, then gets in the driver's seat.

"The keys are missing," she said. "But I don't need them."

"Now then," Youji said to the others. "This car seats five passengers, but there's eight of us. So that means five of us will have to be a seat for the other three because the driver must have an unobstructed view, and Lelei will be driving. And since men are typically heavier than women-"

"You will be my seat, Itami," Rory quickly interjected. "And besides, I'm the only one who can see the trail, so we have to sit in the front."

"That just leaves the rest of you to decide which female gets to sit on which male in the backseat," Youji said to Eric, Kamikoda, Kurihama, Tuka, and Yao.

The five look back and forth between each other with uneasy looks as a sweatdrop graces their respective foreheads.

"Okay, how about this?" Youji said. "Eric-san you sit in the middle with Kamikoda on one side and Kurihama on the other. Then Tuka and Yao can sit on either of their laps, but sharing one with you, Eric-san."

"That . . . could work," Eric mused.

And they do just that, with Yao and Tuka each sitting on one of Eric's legs while sitting on the other man's leg on either side of Eric, who has to pull both his arms up close to him. Most of all, the men in the back start becoming aroused by this.

"Wow, you're pretty light, Tuka," Eric mused. "Don't worry, Yao, it's because you're more muscular than Tuka." Adding that last part quickly, knowing that females tend to be prickly about their weight, even if it were mainly muscle. "But you both have such soft beautiful hair."

"Let's go," Youji said.

Lelei starts the engine up.

"How much fuel?" Youji asked.

"There's nearly a full tank," Lelei answered as she shifts the gear.

She backs the car out onto the road and does a U-turn to follow the trail via Rory's instructions. Pretty soon, they reach a road at a perpendicular with a house and large building alongside it.

"Go through the parking lot and turn right," Rory said.

Lelei does so and they travel up that road past large meadows with houses situated apart, giving them the impression of farmland. There are other roads leading away from it, but Lelei keeps driving straight. They reach the end of the pavement, and later a fork in the road.

"Turn right," Rory said.

Lelei does so and continues onward.

"Those must be logging roads," Eric answered. "Tree-cutting companies would cut a trail into the forests to gain timber. Such roads were also used by people who owned cabins in the forest as well. Such people tend to come after the companies were finished with their quotas."

"Then that must mean our thief lives in a cabin somewhere out there," Itami said.

"Are we getting any closer to your halberd, Rory?" Youji asked.

"Yes, we are," she answered. "It's just up that road." As they approach another turnoff in the logging road.

"She's right," Yao added eagerly. "Now that I'm anticipating someone, I can sense someone up that way."

"Lelei, park the car right past there," Youji commanded as he points up the road turning away from the path Rory insisted they take, prompting her to do so.

"What's going on, Sir Itami?" Yao asked.

"If that thief is just up that road, then we need to approach them as quietly as we can," Youji explained.

"They could also be armed," Eric said. "Remember, this is the United State of America. In the American Constitution under the Bill of Rights, there is an amendment that clearly states that American citizens have the right to own guns."

"It's strange that a nation would allow its people to own such weapons," Rory said.

"Well, you gotta understand that the American Constitution was written up in a time when guns were more primative," Eric said. "They were single shot whose ammunition were in seperate components. First the gunpowder had to be loaded through the muzzle, then the lead shot, and finally it all had to be tucked down with a ramrod. The whole process took about half a minute."

"Let's put the history lesson on hold for now," Youji said, then looks around at the forest. "Right now we need to focus on the thief. Whoever they are, they're living out here."

"Why would they do that when they could live in any of those wonderful houses back there?" Tuka asked.

"I think it's because they're scared that they may have a run-in with dangerous people that may be prowling around," Eric answered. "Remember, there's no more law and order."

"Can't we just sneek through the forest to get to them?" Tuka suggested.

"Even though the thief might still be asleep this early in the morning, it will take too long," Youji said. "Although I do expect them to come storming down that road toward us with a gun. Okay, let's get this over with before that thief wakes up. So let's get out. Quietly."

"Let me try something," Tuka said, then chants something that sounds like a mouse's squeak and all four doors open without a sound.

"I asked the wind to open the doors without noise," she said. "I will also tell them to close the doors without noise."

"Good idea," Youji said, then in a whisper. "Quietly now."

Everyone slips out of the car, much to the relief of the Elves in the back and the disappointment of the men. Tuka causes the doors to all close shut without a sound.

"Wow," Eric gasped softly.

"Listen. There's a brook nearby," Youji whispered to them, causing them to listen intently and they end up hearing it. "The constant noise of the water should mask whatever footfalls we might make. Now come on."

Everyone starts creeping along as the babbling of the nearby brook masks their footfalls. They walk up the road that disappears into forest up ahead. They continue creeping along in a line and soon see their stolen vehicle, complete with its trailer. As they slowly get closer, they end up seeing a camper trailer just tucked out of sight alongside their stolen humvee and trailer. It is white with blue racing lines and is positioned so that the door on its side is facing the road.

Youji motions for them to stop, then sneaks up to the humvee alone. He turns and motions for the rest to approach, but quietly as he puts his finger to his lips. They keep expecting the thief to come bursting out of that camper trailer with gun in hand. So far, nothing.

They join Youji so that they are all hidden by the humvee and circle close to him.

"I don't think they're awake," he whispered in a just barely audible voice. "Wait here."

Youji slips around the front of the humvee creeping low. He reaches the trailer's door and slowly rises to peek through the corner of the window using the quarter face peek. No soon does he look when there is a blur of movement from inside and the next thing he is aware of is flying backward to fall flat on his back. When he recovers his senses enough, he finds himself staring up at the thief in question standing over him while in the threshold of the doorway glaring down at him with pinpricked irises and pointing a snub nose revolver at him, cocking it for emphasis. The person is a teenaged girl, Caucasian with a fair skin tone, grey eyes, and long black wavy hair parted in the middle. She is wearing blue jeans, white sneakers, and a leather jacket over a yellow shirt.

"N-No Ingreesh!" Youji stated. "M-Me Japanese!"

The girl still points her gun down at him while still glaring.

"Fuck off or me shoot you," she finally answered carefully in a threatening tone.

Eric had heard this exchange, then gestured for Rory to go out there.

"Excuse me, little girl," Rory said in a sultry and dangerous tone as she she walks around the humvee, prompting the armed girl to point her gun at Rory now.

"She, Rory Mercury," Youji said carefully.

"You two go," Eric whispered to Tuka and Lelei who do just that to join Rory.

"They, Tuka Luna Marceau and Lelei La Lelena," Youji introduced.

The armed girl's face begins to change to shock as she gapes with awe and lowers her gun. Her shrunken irises as shimmering pinpricks. The others emerge from around the humvee to stand with them.

"Eric-san," Youji said as he slowly sits up and scoots backward. "You better talk to her."

"What is your name?" Eric asked and gets her name. "She said her name is Samantha Taylor."

"Ask her if she was living alone up here," Youji asked as he finally stands, of which Eric translated and gets a long reply.

"She said, she fled into the woods after her parents died from Hardy's Plague," replacing Brazilian Flu, "but not before she watched on the news about the riots and people fleeing. She saw many of them fleeing along the highway in droves. No sooner did she get here before she started coming down with Hardy's Plague. She thought she was going to die, but she recovered. She stayed here for a time with what little supplies she had and only started to emerge to see how much damage went on. Now she has a question for us, what are we doing here?"

Youji tells her through Eric. "We're here to rescue Lelei's stepsister, Arpeggio, because she accidentally teleported herself to Seattle."

"Teleport?" Samantha sneered inquisitively.

"Arpeggio is a mage like Lelei," Eric explained. "She was working on a spell that she had no business working on and wound up on this side of the world."

"Ah, okay," Samantha mused.

"Ask her if she would like to come with us back to Japan and into the Special Area," Youji said.

For a moment, the group is shocked by his offer, then Eric asks her the question and gets a single reply and a wry look.

"She just asked why," Eric marveled.

Through Eric, Samantha is told that out of the billions of Humans that once lived across Earth, approximately fifty thousand survived, but less than that number actually made it to Japan because thousands lost their lives in getting over there. Over the past several months, they had been going to Japan in the hopes of getting into the Special Area to escape the coming asteroid. Those from Europe, Asia, and Africa had arrived in South Korea by vehicle, then were ferried across the Korea Strait to Japan. Those from Australia and the Americas had crossed the Pacific Ocean by any ship they could get ahold of. As for themselves, once they get to Seattle and find Arpeggio, they are going to find a plane that will take them back to Japan. They flew over here, but ended up flying into a storm and crash landed outside of San Francisco.

"Then we found a humvee and began our journey to Seattle," Eric finished.

Samantha gapes in awe with wide eyes and shrunken shimmering irises.

"I can see that this is a lot for you to process," Eric said.

"I," Samantha finally began sheepishly as she looks away while rubbing her arms, "I had flirted with the idea of traveling north until I reached the westernmost point of Alaska that overlooks the Bering Strait. There, I'd find a boat to take me across the Bering Strait to Russia and travel down that peninsula all the way to that chain of islands that leads to Japan. There, I'd find another boat and follow those islands. But . . . But I got scared. Not of dying mind you, but of running into a bunch of men who'd end up raping me."

Eric translated that, including the fear of rape.

"Understandable," Rory mused. "Most women fear rape more than death."

"I'd like to know about the situation that involved her discovering our presence and taking our humvee," Lelei said of which Eric translated.

Samantha closes her eyes momentarily to rein in her thoughts, then finally answers through Eric. Although Samantha gives them a general condensed description, she remembers yesterday in detail.


	12. Chapter 11

_Samantha drove upon Ophir Road back into her neighborhood. Up ahead a bridge spanned a tree-lined brook that casually hid a house alongside Ophir Road and a street connected to it called Cedar Valley Drive, of which led east then soon turned southward to disappear around a bend to be obscured by a small cluster of trees._

 _Upon approach, a military vehicle pulling a trailer suddenly crossed the road on the other side of the brook some several hundred feet up ahead. Samantha was quick to veer off the road in the effort to hide, then shut off the engine and dove for cover across her seats to hide. Although the trees up ahead casually hid her car, someone could simply walk out onto the road and see her car._

 _Fear gripped Samantha. Last year, her sister went to Portland, only to return as a victim of rape. Her sister had gone from being a strong and outgoing woman to a timid recluse who jumped at loud noises and suffered frequent nightmares that caused her to wake up screaming._

 _Then came the news reports of a plague that was spreading all over the world, killing anyone it infected. It finally reached America and spread rapidly as well. There were more reports of martial law being imposed to combat the lawlessness that was taking hold. Soon, came even more reports of looting and rioting as martial law started to fail. She also remembered the cars and trucks that were fleeing along the 101._

 _That plague had finally struck their neighbourhood as her parents were strickened by it and died from it. Then it was her sister's turn to sicken and die from it as well._

 _Fearing not only that plague, but also rape, Samantha packed whatever supplies she could get into her parent's car and camper, then fled into the forest. Once there, she finally came down with that plague. She did not remember much during her sickness save that she was so ill that she did not care if she died as long as her suffering ended._

 _Samantha carefully peeked over the dashboard and saw no one. Still, she stayed low so that if someone did come looking, she could duck down before she could be seen. She thought about that supply trailer they were pulling and it began to tempt her. Should she sneek down there tonight and make off with it? No way, she could get caught! But with every second that passed, the temptation grew stronger. Maybe, if she were quiet. If she could just get into that truck as quietly as humanly possible, she could start it up and gun it, drive away as fast as she could before they could get out the door. It was going to have to be late at night though._

 _Samantha did not need to see the vehicle to know that the people were at that house so casually hidden by the trees up ahead. They were also not going to find anything to eat in there because she had been through that house already._

 _The sun setted and Samantha ever so carefully opened her door, straining to listen for any voices, but heard none. She next reached down to take the car keys out, then ever so slowly got out as she locked the door and closed it ever so gently; pressing in on the door so that it will fully close._

 _She looked at the trees up ahead. The problem was what existed past them: open land with an unhindered view at the front and side of the house facing this direction. Cedar Valley Drive has a row of trees along either side of it, but they did not extend all the way down to Ophir Road._

 _The plan was simple: cross the bridge; duck immediately into the trees, then use them as cover while walking along the creek. Once she got in far enough, emerge from the creek bank and run across an open field some five hundred feet wide to cross Oak Drive and duck into that cluster of trees behind that house. Then finally, wait until it got late enough into the night to make her move._

 _She cautiously jogged upon the pavement in order to hide her footfalls. As she began to cross the bridge, she tried to stay far enough over to one side to remain hidden from view of the house. Upon crossing the bridge, she went into the trees. It proved to be harder than she expected since there was a tangle of trees and bushes in her way that she had to push herself through. That proved tedious, since the swishing was unnervingly loud._

 _Samantha trekked through the trees, careful to stay close to the bank but not too close that she might step in the water, or worse fall into it. Periodically, she stopped to gauge her distance along. Unable to see that house properly also meant that the people in there would not be able to see her either, especially if they were inside and not paying attention to this side. The windows on that side of the house were small, possibly bedroom windows, and they would not bother to look out through them._

 _After walking far enough, Samantha looked once again to try and see that house. When she could not see it right away, she hazarded a peek through those trees and discovered that she could not see it because it was hidden by those rows of trees. Satisifed, she got out of the trees and briskly walked those approximately five hundred feet of open grassy space with the imprints of ATV wheels up to those other trees. Once there, she simply crossed Cedar Valley Drive._

 _Then it came to her. She did not need to hide within those trees, she only needed to stay out of sight. Those trees were numerous enough and close enough together to hide her. Samantha gazed out toward the Pacific and saw the half moon setting. Perfect, it was going to be a moonless night. She then walked far enough up Cedar Valley Drive until she was around the bend. She knew of another house situated nearby as well, hidden by the trees along with its driveway, directly behind that house those people were staying in. She once was going to check that other house out, but it was currently "occupied" as the two cars there show._

 _Samantha instead simply loitered on the road._

 _Twilight continued to grow fainter, making the night darker. Samantha paced, at times even sat. At one point, her bladder had reached its limit and she dropped her jeans and urinated, though thankful that she did not need to defecate. She frequently looked up at the clear sky that grew increasingly darker and starrier. She periodically checked her watch using a small flashlight. There was also the possibility that nobody would be asleep in that house._

 _Time seemed to pass torturously slow. It was fortunate that the sky remained clear. Also, without the moon or any other sources of ambient light, the stars were revealed in all of their glory as they looked to have been splattered across the sky with a toothbrush. The Milky Way trailed like a thin cloud across the full length of the sky. Samantha tried to find the various constellations, but was only familiar with Orion the Hunter, the Big Dipper, and the Little Dipper._

 _After a time, Samantha checked her watch to see that it was a half-hour after midnight. She felt that this was the right time to make her move, relying only on the contrasts of her surroundings of light on dark. She could make out the house and saw that it was pitch black in the windows. She crept along the street, stealing glances at the house. As quiet as she was, along with the possibility that none of those windows were open, she was hoping that nobody had the intuition to get up and look out a window. Given that she could see contrasts means that they could also see contrasts as well, and end up seeing her outline. She was half-expecting to make out someone looking out that window._

 _Samantha reached the end of the road and stared at the military vehicle and its supply trailer in the dark. All she could make out was its shape. She crept up to them, careful to walk on the road to hide her steps. Once alongside them, she studied it to see that they were facing down the road in the direction that she was coming earlier. She walked up to the humvee and touched it to feel the cool metal made moist from the dew forming upon it. She wondered if the door was locked and the keys taken. Given that they would not be expecting anybody else coming around, it was possible that neither was the case._

 _Ever so silently, she tried the driver's door; wincing at the barely audible click the handle made as if it were a loud bang. The door opened, showing that part of her theory was correct, then slid inside. Once in the seat, she ever so carefully closed the door; wincing once again at the barely audible click as if it were a loud bang. She sighed intently while sitting there for a moment clasping the steering wheel. She next crouched under the dashboard and took out her flashlight, careful to keep it low so as not to give away the light. She saw the keys and smiled, then examined the shiftstick to see the second drive at the bottom of it. She next got up and checked for where the headlight switch might be and found it._

 _Samantha turned off her flashlight and pocketed it. She glanced at the house, expecting to see somebody looking out it, only to see no one there. Next, she looked ahead as she slowly clasped the keys, then released and moved her hand to the shift stick to get a feel of it in the dark, then clasped the keys once again. Back and forth, she moved her right hand from keys to shift stick so as not to mess up of where to grab it, and all as she took deep breaths to psyche herself up with her body tensed for the actions she needed to do: start the engine; pull the gear stick down as fast as humanly possible; press the pedal to the metal; and turn on the headlights so that she don't go into the brook or crash into her car. While confident in her own reflexes, she understood that how quickly she drove out of here depended entirely upon how quickly the engine started. And all before those people could wake up and run out here to catch her, or at least see where she was going. Even if they did see her turn off toward the backcountry, there are seemingly hundreds of logging roads crisscrossing the backcountry._

 _Samantha took a deep breath and held it as she clasped the keys firmly. Her heart pounded like a drum. It was now or never and she firmly turned those keys. It took only a second for the engine to roar to life and she grabbed the gear shaft, yanking it down hard. She pressed her foot down hard onto the gas pedal and the humvee tires spun for a second before pulling away with its trailer. Of course! With a trailer, it was not going to move as fast as she had hoped it would!_

 _Nevertheless, she did speed away, if only at a speed that would defeat anyone running after her. Samantha turned on the lights and just managed to correct her path before crashing into the side of the bridge. She sped along, blurring past her car. Unable to make a sharp turn, she sped through the turnoff of the house and large building up ahead and onto the road that would take her back to her camper. All the while fearful that they would find her._

* * *

"We didn't wake up at all," Eric said. "Because Tuka there had put a sleep spell on us so that we all would sleep without disturbance."

"Really?" Samantha quipped. "You mean like . . . magic?"

"Yes, Spirit Magic," Eric answered.

"Anyway, to finish up," Samantha continued, causing Eric to translate. "I arrived back here and stayed in my camper and fell asleep, half expecting you guys to bust down my door. Then I woke up and saw his head peeping in throughout a corner and you pretty much know the rest."

There is a moment of silence.

"Ask her if she still wants to come with us, Eric-san," Youji said. "Because since Hardy's Plague didn't kill her, that asteroid will."

Eric repeats the question to Samantha. She tightens her lips as she thinks about it. She watched everyone who had ever matter to her sicken and die. Reports came in on the news that martial law was failing as more soldiers and police were dying off. Brownouts became more frequent. Not wanting to take any chances, she packed what she could and fled into the forest with her parent's car and camper trailer. No sooner did she get set up before she too came down with that plague and languished for days in that trailer, expecting it to be her tomb. She eventually recovered and went to discover the electricity down for good. Fear of rape drove her back into the forest.

And all of it was with the understanding that asteroid was going to hit in a couple of years.

For almost a year she had been staying in the forest, doing nothing more than just surviving. Breaking into houses, most of them stinking from the corpses still within them, to get what she wanted in the form of canned and packaged food. Those houses with no corpses, she did not feel comfortable enough to take over, since she always had that irrational feeling that the owners were going to return. Water was not an issue since she camped out next to a brook as that bridge spanning it nearby shows.

As she was doing all this, the rest of the survivors worldwide were making the arduous journey over to Japan so that they could go through the Gate and avoid the coming asteroid.

"Eric," Lelei said. "Tell Samantha that we do not have the luxury of waiting and want to reach See-at-all as soon as possible."

Eric translates. Samantha takes a deep breath and exhales.

"Okay," she finally answered. "Just give me several minutes to get a packsack ready." As she turns to go back inside her camper.

"She's getting ready," Eric assured them.

They hear the sounds of Samantha taking stuff and putting them into something. Several minutes later, she emerges with a black packsack, ready to go.

"Tell her she can put it in the supply trailer," Youji said as he walks over to open it, and Eric tells Samantha. Once opened, Samantha puts her backpack into the back where she sees their backpacks and even army rations as well.

"It looks like you guys were well-prepared," Samantha said after putting her backpack in, and Eric informs the others.

"Actually we found all this just outside of San Francisco," Eric said to Samantha. "There were several military assets there as well." Then looks over the humvee and trailer. "So how are we gonna turn all this around?"

"Leave that to me," Lelei said. "You may all want to step away from the humvee and trailer."

Lelei begins her chant and a glow surrounds the humvee and its trailer. Next, it rises slowly and begins to slowly turn around.

"Holy shit! Real magic!" Samantha exclaimed as she clasps her own head with wide eyes and shrunken irises.

The humvee and trailer are soon facing the way they came and the glow around it disappears.

"H-How does it work?!" Samantha gasped, of which Eric translated for Lelei.

"It's a force that involves imposing assumptions upon reality," Lelei answered, causing Eric to translate. "There's also different types of magic. We did regular magic, but Elves can do Spirit Magic and demigods like Rory can do Holy Magic."

"That's right, I've heard she's a Demigod!" Samantha gasped while looking at Rory with awe.

"We can continue this conversation while we drive," Youji said, and Eric translated.

Everyone piles into the humvee. There on the floor are two familiar things, Lelei's staff and . . .

"Ah, my halberd," Rory said fondly as she hefts it for a moment.

"That was how we found you," Eric said to Samantha. "She could see a sparkling golden trail that led us here by her halberd."

"Well, that's weird. Wait, was that what she had wrapped up when she went before that Japanese parliment?" Samantha asked eagerly, and Eric translates.

"Yes, it was," Rory answered through Eric.

Everyone soon finds their seats with Youji driving once again. He starts up the humvee and they are soon on their way. Samantha gazes out the window to look with a sense of sorrow at the rapidly retreating camper trailer, then the car, until they are out of sight.


	13. Chapter 12

Conversation is difficult as Eric has to be the translator between Samantha and the others.

"She's amazed that you're a Demigod and a thousand years old, Rory," Eric translated for Samantha.

"Nine hundred and sixty-two to be exact," Rory answered, of which Eric translated. "It's been a year."

"Oh sorry, I forgot," Samantha said sheepishly, then turns to Tuka. "So that must mean she's one hundred and sixty-six years old." Again of which Eric translates. "Now what about her, the Dark Elf?"

"She wants to know your age, Yao," Eric asked.

"Three hundred and sixteen," Yao answered, and Eric translated.

"I see," Samantha said. She next stares at Lelei. "Would I be able to learn any magic?" Eric of which translated.

"That is not a guarantee," Lelei answered through Eric. "It's not like learning science. Magic is something that one either has the potential to perform or simply does not. And those who cannot, will not. It's not like a mere job."

"So it's a career then?" Samantha asked through Eric.

"A kah-reer?" Lelei asked.

"It's an occupation that is done for much of a person's life, usually with opportunities," Eric answered.

"Oh, well, there's not much in the way of opportunity for mages, but it is something that is for life, simply because they have the talent for it."

"What?" Samantha asked Eric.

"She didn't know what career meant and I explained it to her. It may be a career but there's not much in the way for advancement, since it is something based upon imposing perceptions on reality rather than understanding it like science."

"Eric," Tuka said. "Ask Samantha about herself."

"They want to know about you," Eric said to Samantha, of which Samantha begins to talk and Eric translates.

"She's eighteen years old and once lived near that house we bedded down in for the night."

"Ask her why she didn't remain in her house, or even live in any of the others for that matter?" Yao asked through Eric, who translated for Samantha, making her answer through Eric.

"I was afraid I'd be discovered by a bunch of marauding men and end up as their sex slave, and none of the other houses really belonged to me, so it didn't feel right for me to attempt to live in any of them. Not only that but most of the houses have become mausoleums."

"Are you familiar with Route One Hundred and One?" Eric asked.

"Yes, in fact, I've used it to go up to Astoria three times."

"Hey guys, she knows about Route One Hundred and One because she went to Astoria three times," Eric relayed.

"That's good to hear," Youji said. "Her knowledge about the area will definitely be helpful to us."

They reach the turnoff to Route 101 and turn to go north.

"Hey, Eric," Samantha said. "Get ready to translate something." And she begins to talk, prompting Eric to translate. "There have been land slides, causing road blocks. When that happens, it can be a huge problem because this region is pretty much dependant upon this highway. Oh, and then there are traffic jams."

"Traffic jams?" Youji said. "We've yet to encounter any such thing." And Eric translated.

"Not yet," Samantha said, prompting Eric to translate. "At least not until you get around Lincoln City."

"So there's a city on this coast?" Rory asked through Eric.

"Please, it's just a town of several thousand," Samantha waved dismissively and Eric translated.

"In their world, that constitutes a city," Youji said and Eric also translated.

They enter a town called Coos Bay.

"This is the largest town on the Oregon coast," Samantha informed them through Eric. "It has a population of sixteen thousand."

"Don't you mean, had?" Eric quipped.

"Oh yeah, that's right," Samantha said distantly.

"It does not sound like a lot of people lived along this Route One Hundred and One," Kamikoda said and Eric translated.

"Further inland was where most of the people of Oregon had lived," Samantha answered through Eric, "especially in and near Salem, the state capital, and Portland, the largest city."

They drive down a street lined with restaurants.

"I wonder if there's any food left in those restaurants?" Samantha pondered aloud.

"I don't think so," Eric answered. "When we were passing through Eureka, we went into a McDonald's, but found nothing. That is also where we checked out the nearby shopping mall. It was called the Bayshore Mall. We found nothing in there either"

"Never been there," Samantha answered. "The furthest south I've ever been was Gold Beach."

Eric fills the rest in on their conversation. Further down, they end up seeing a very tall building standing well above the rest.

"So this place does have a tower of a building," Rory said.

"Samantha, what building is that?" Eric asked.

"That's the Tioga Building," Samantha answered through him. "It is the tallest building on the Oregon coast. If you wanna see taller buildings, then you'll have to go to either Salem or Portland. Rumor has it that the Tioga is also haunted."

"Oh, so that explains those two people up in those windows," Lelei said.

"What?!" Eric exclaimed, then tells Samantha, causing her to exclaim as well.

"I can see them too!" Rory said.

"So can I," Tuka added.

"Same here," Yao said.

"Eh? You serious, you guys can see ghosts?" Youji stated as he slowed to look up, but see nothing either.

"Yes," Lelei, Rory, Tuka, and Yao answered simultaneously.

"They're on the second floor," Lelei said.

"Those four said they can see ghosts," Eric told Samantha.

Samantha, Eric, Youji, Kamikoda, and Kurihama strain to see them. But they see no one.

"Keep driving, Itami," Eric stated in an uneasy manner.

It is as they are passing a motel that Youji does a double take and suddenly turns toward it.

"Why are we going here, Youji?" Rory asked.

"You'll see," he answered.

Youji stops, shuts off the engine, and everyone gets out; with Eric telling Samantha that Youji wants to show them something.

"So what is it that you want to show us, Sir Itami?" Yao asked.

"That," he answered as he points at a small white bus with light green trim running along its bottom.

They walk over to the bus and Youji tries the door.

"Locked," he sighed. "Lelei."

"On it," she answered as she walks up to the bus doors and chants something, causing the door to unlock as the sound of a click announces it so. She stands aside as Youji walks up to them and pushes them open.

"Yep, no stench of rot in here," he answered. He stands there for a moment.

"Excluding the driver's seat, there's sixteen seats," Youji announced. "The keys are missing, so you're going to have to do your thing, Lelei."

Lelei walks in and touching the ignition keyhole starts up the engine, causing it to roar to life. Youji looks closely at the dashboard and reads the fuel guage.

"Okay, Lelei, shut her down for a moment!" He yelled. "I need to talk to the others!"

She shuts off the engine.

"The tank is almost empty," Youji said. "We're going to have to fill it up with the two gas cans on the side of the humvee."

With Kamikoda and Kurihama doing the task, the two gas cans are drained into the bus tank. Once the cap is put back on, Youji orders Lelei to start the engine once again. He reads it and has her shut it off once more.

"It's still not enough," Youji said. "The humvee's tank is gonna have to be drained."

"Do we have a hose around?" Eric asked.

"I have an idea," Youji said. "It's a theory really. And if I'm correct, we won't need a hose. Tuka."

"Yes, father."

"Can Spirit Magic be used to move liquid?"

"Why yes it can. What do you have in mind?"

"I was thinking that maybe you could remove the diesel from the tank and into the gas cans. No wait, even better. Directly into the bus' gas tank. I'm picturing it flowing through the air like a cord from the humvee's tank opening into the bus' tank opening."

"I need a visual on this if I'm going to do it properly. Oh, and the closer they are, the better."

"Understood," Youji said. "Kamikoda-san, park the humvee close to the bus. Make sure their fuel openings are as close as possible to each other."

"Hai." And he ends up doing just that.

Tuka walks over and stares at the tank, concentrating on what she needs to do. She chants and soon a stream of diesel comes out of the humvee's tank opening, then flows into the bus' tank opening.

"I'm seeing it, but I'm still having a hard time believing it!" Samantha whispered profoundly with an expression of awe.

"I know the feeling well," Eric said.

The diesel continues to flow along like a glistening wavering rope into the bus' tank opening. A few minutes later, the diesel comes to an end.

"That's all of it," Tuka announced.

"Good work, Tuka," Youji said as he pats her head, then rescrews the gas cap back into place.

"Thank you, father," she said cheerfully with a beaming smile and closed eyes.

"Next, we move everything from that trailer onto the bus," Youji said.

The group do just that, using both the outside luggage storage space and the inside ones above the seats. Once everything is settled and everyone is on the bus, Lelei starts it up.

"We have a full tank," she announced, making everyone voice their satisfaction.

"Then let's go," Youji said.


	14. Chapter 13

They approach Lincoln City and are quick to take note of a larger congestion of traffic up ahead. While the rest of the highway behind them had vehicles on them, they were never numerous enough to oppose their drive. It was simply a matter of swerving around them. Here on the other hand, there is more traffic.

"We may have a problem gettng through that," Rory said.

"We may have to ditch the bus and take what we can and walk through that mess," Youji grumbled.

As they get closer, they begin to notice something.

"It looks like most of it was pushed aside," Lelei said.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Youji said. "It looks like somebody got their hands on something to push through all that traffic."

"They noticed that the vehicles were all moved aside by something," Eric said to Samantha.

They drive pass vehicles that have scratches and gouges in their sides, crushed bumpers with broken head or tail lights, and deeply dented doors. Whatever was used, had enough power to push them aside, and had tractor treads as the scuff marks on the asphalt show.

"It looks like a bulldozer was used," Eric said, then said it to Samantha.

"Then it can only mean that as the other survivors were fleeing, one of them got ahold of a bulldozer and used it," Youji said. "A large group must have gone through, otherwise if it were only one person, they could've simply just walked around the traffic and take another vehicle later on."

For what must have been five miles, they pass through a trail cleared through the traffic. They come to the end of that stalled traffic and encounter what had been used: a large yellow bulldozer.

"It's just like the ones that were used to build those buildings back in Alnus," Tuka said.

Their journey continues onward as the morning passes into noon. It is during that time they cross a long causeway. There are some stationary vehicles upon it, but none interfere with their travel.

"Straight up ahead is Astoria," Samantha announced and Eric translated.

"And it is in there that we must make our decision of which route to go," Eric said.

"Hmm, well," Samantha said while studying the atlas as she scratches her head for a moment. "Why not keep driving along the Columbia on the Oregon side?"

"That's one way," Eric answered. "But we could also take the bridge across the Columbia and turn east."

"What's wrong with staying on the Oregon side?" Samantha asked, her tone bearing a hint of annoyance.

"Well," Eric began, "what if a bridge further down is out? Because if it turns out to be so, then we would have to turn around and drive all the way back."

"What's going on?" Rory asked. "It sounds like you two are having an argument."

"We're trying to figure out which route to take once we enter Astoria," Eric answered. "I suggest crossing the Columbia River via the bridge in Astoria, but Samantha suggested that we should continue east on this side until we reach further inland."

"Let's try crossing the Columbia River first," Youji said.

They enter Astoria proper as they weave their way around various vehicles. The typical scenery of damaged buildings and strewn odds and ends is consistent. They see the huge bridge up ahead over the buildings.

"That's quite an impressive bridge," Lelei mused with a hint of awe.

"The route is just up ahead," Samantha said and Eric translated. "It should be obvious when you arrive."

They arrive at the turnoff to the bridge in question. It loops around back rising ever higher as it leads the driver to the bridge.

"The Columbia River," Samantha began with Eric translating, "makes up most of the border between Oregon and Washington."

"It's like the Rho River," Yao said, remembering back on how she had to cross one of the largest rivers on the Falmart continent in order to get to Alnus.

"I don't see anything wrong upon it," Lelei said. "So I guess we can cross."

They drive across the bridge that spans the huge Columbia River. It has only a few vehicles still there, with none of them blocking the road.

"Eric, tell them we are about to enter the State of Washington," Samantha said to him, and Eric told them, as he can see the sign up ahead above them. Moments later. "Okay, we are now in Washington."

They see the end of the bridge, and up ahead where the highway splits in two with one side leading west and the other east.

"Lelei, go east," Eric said. "Anotherwords, right."

Lelei does so upon reaching the turnoff and they travel onward. Over ten minutes later down that road, they are forced to stop.

"Ah, fuck it!" Samantha growled loudly. "The bridge is out!"

They all get out and look. The bridge that spanned a stream is now gone.

"There was a huge flood here," Tuka said.

"She's right, there are mud stains and twigs on the road," Yao added.

"So I guess we have to go back to Or-ee-gone and travel along the other way then," Lelei said.

"That we will," Youji sighed with a growl as he stares at the missing bridge with one eye closed and rubbing his head in annoyance.

"I wonder why they didn't put up some sort of sign stating that the bridge would be out?" Rory asked.

"Maybe this happened only recently," Youji suggested. "After all, there was that huge rainstorm two days ago."

"Man, it looks like I was wrong about this side," Eric fumed.

"It can't be helped, Eric," Rory said.

"No, I guess not," he sighed.

"You're just upset that the route you wanted us to take turned out to be a dead end," Lelei said.

 _Blunt_. Youji, Kamikoda, and Kurihama thought simultaneously. In Japanese culture, such an observation would not be verbalized as it would have been considered rude. Samantha of course was left wondering what that exchange was all about.

 _Fuck this language barrier_. She cursed inwardly.

They return to the state of Oregon and drive along the Columbia due east. They pass through the hamlets and villages along the highway, and even the vehicles that are by the side of the road. After an hour of driving, they reach a village named Rainer, where they encounter another bridge to take them across the Columbia. The drive across it is uneventful and they encounter no vehicles upon it.

Once again they enter the State of Washington, and at the same time enter a large town named Longview.

"Okay," Samantha said while staring at the atlas and Eric translates, "there's a chart at the top of the page that shows the distance between certain places within a state. It just so happens that it has it between Seattle and Longview."

"So what is it then?" Youji asked through Eric.

"One hundred and twenty-nine miles," Samantha answered through Eric.

"What about in kilometers?" Youji asked through Eric.

"It doesn't say."

Youji makes a mental calculation. "So that must be around two hundred and seven kilometers," he finally answered through Eric. "And given the cruising speed we've been going at, and factoring in the traffic we might be encountering along the way, we should reach Seattle in two or three hours."

The drive through Longview is somewhat tricky as it is a town that once had some thirty thousand people in it, so there are plenty of streets and turnoffs that don't lead directly to where they want to go. As expected there are vehicles in the roads and off them, crashed or not, abandoned or still with their rotting passengers. And the varying degrees of looting and vandalism throughout the town.

"That sign up ahead is pointing the direction to Seattle," Samantha stated, of which Eric verfied.

"Since there are no vehicles moving around," Lelei said. "I'm taking a shortcut to get to the highway that will take us to See-at-all."

She turns the bus down a road meant for oncoming traffic only, bypassing a complex set of roads that would have led them onto Highway Route Five below.

"That . . . was direct," Samantha mused.

They head north to where Seattle and Apreggio await them. They continue driving along passing more traffic and even swirving around it.

"Hey guys," Eric spoke up. "I think Samantha should know about the origin of Hardy's Plague because she will be finding out one way or another."

Eric proceeds to tell Samantha the origin of the so-called Brazilian Flu. After his explaination, Samantha gapes with shock as she is pie-eyed and her irises are pinpricks. She tries to speak, but is so overwhelmed at what she had been told that all she can do is work her mouth instead. She turns back in her seat and faces forward, leaning up against the window as she rests her arm up against the window with her hand pressed against her forehead with fingers perched.

"I know the feeling," Eric said.

They travel north in silence as they look out the windows. Tuka takes out her lute and begins playing and singing once again in her native tongue. This time it is a different song, but no less melodic and serene. Samantha listens intently as if spellbounded.

Tuka eventually finishes and Samantha sighs with wonderment.

"That was incredible! The entertainment industry would have loved to get their hands on you!"

"I don't think Elves sing for entertainment," Eric said. "I was told that they are not even taught that. They just pick it up and learn by imitation. Kind of like walking. It's because they are so long lived."

"They're still incredible though," Samantha said as she looks ahead.

She notices a sign and reads it.

"Mount Saint Helen's National Volcanic Monument," Samantha read.

"She read the name of a volcano that erupted over forty years ago," Eric informed the others. "It leveled a whole forest and snowed ash for miles around."

"So this world has volcanoes as well," Rory said.

"That it does," Eric answered. "Some are active, some are dormant, and some are extinct."

"Japan has volcanoes as well," Youji said. "A lot of them too. Mount Fuji is the most famous."

"Oh, that huge snow-covered mountain we saw just outside of Tokyo," Rory said.

"Talking about volcanoes?" Samantha asked Eric.

"Yes, about Mount Fuji."

"Translate the following to them," Samantha said and Eric begins. "Before we enter Seattle, we will be passing through Olympia, the capital of Washington. It will be there that we might be encountering a lot more traffic and other acts of vandalism."

"That is something to consider," Youji said, of which Eric translated to Samantha. "Although if another bulldozer was used further north, then the vehicles might be pushed aside, at least the smaller ones like the cars and trucks."

"That's the hope," Samantha answered through Eric. "Since you guys found me . . . What if . . . ? What if there are more survivors around here who didn't leave? What if we encounter them?"

There is a moment of silence as the group are pondering that.

"Then we will just have to take them in since we have a bus now," Youji answered with Eric translating.

There is more silence as the language barrier between Samantha and the others proves tedious, especially for Eric since he has to be the translator. They continue to travel onward without anyone speaking. It is a long time before anyone speaks because of something that inevitably elicts remarks.

"Olympia, two and a half miles," Samantha said, of which Eric translated. "Then we turn right and pass through a city called Tacoma. And finally, it's Seattle."


	15. Chapter 14

They are soon driving through Olympia upon its intricate freeway pass stalled vehicles.

"So where's the city?" Rory asked.

"It must be hidden by all those trees," Yao said.

"They're wondering where Olympia is," Eric explained to Samantha. "And that it must be hidden by those trees."

"It must be because according to this atlas, Olympia had a population of roughly fifty thousand people," Samantha said of which Eric translated.

"I guess the people of Wash-eeng-ton State must have liked forests," Tuka pondered. "In ancient times, we Elves had our cities amongst the forests."

"So Elves had a civilization in the Special Area one time?" Youji asked.

"It was back when it was only us High Elves," Tuka answered.

"Are High Elves native to the Special Area?" Eric asked.

"We were the first ones who came through the Gate," Tuka answered.

"So that must mean that those gods over there were the first ones to claim that world," Eric said. "Are those High Elf cities still around?"

"No," Tuka said sadly. "Only what ruins that can be found remain now."

"Then it was my people who were next to come through the Gate," Yao said. "There were . . . conflicts." Her tone sheepish as she looks downward.

"The Gate reopened several more times over the millennia, permitting other intelligent species to pass through," Tuka added in a morose tone and expression. "This created even more conflicts for us High Elves, diminishing our civilization even further. The recent arrival of Humans some two thousand years ago ended our civilization completely; so now we live in villages tucked away in the forests."

There is a moment of awkward silence. Eric informs Samantha of what that conversation was all about.

"Ask them how long Elves have lived in the Special Area?" Samantha asked, of which Eric transcribes.

"High Elves have been living there for ten thousand years," he told Samantha, then turns to Tuka and Yao. "Back then when we Humans were still living in the Stone Age. We used chipped rocks for tools; we hunted and gathered; wore animal skins; homes were either a cave, a tent made of animal skin, or a hut made of mud and woven tree branches. Farming was still in its infancy."

"Hard to believe when this world has wonders we never thought possible," Tuka pondered.

"Knowledge builds upon knowledge," Lelei said.

They leave Olympia and pass through Tacoma where, unlike Olympia, the buildings are more obvious. In time, Samantha reads out a sign, of which Eric translates.

"Welcome to Seattle."

"I'll stop here and contact Alfe," Lelei said, then stops the bus and shuts the engine off. "I won't need help since she's closer now."

"What's going on?" Samantha asked Eric.

"Lelei is going to contact her stepsister," he answered. "She's going to do it through magic."

* * *

Arpeggio is up in the observation deck of the Space Needle, of which she only understands it to be the Disk Tower. When she awoke that morning, she understood that today will be the day that Lelei and the others finally arrive. For that, she wanted to be someplace from where she could see them coming. Some place distinctive.

And then it came to her about the Space Needle. It is high and distinctive with two restaurants up inside this disk part.

{Alfe.}

"Lelei, where are you guys?!" Arpeggio asked eagerly as she feels a sense of hope.

{We're at the city limits of See-at-all.}

"Great! I know where you can find me! The Disk Tower!"

{The Disk Tower?}

"It has a top in the form of a disk lying on one side. It appears to be the only tower around here like it."

{Okay, I'll be sure to tell the others. Although Yao is with us and she will be able to sense your presence. How have you been holding up?}

"Well enough."

{Okay, we'll see you soon.}

* * *

"Alfe said she'll be in a tower she called, the Disk Tower," Lelei told the others. "It has a top in the form of a disk lying on one side."

"The Space Needle!" Eric stated intently as he finally understands. "I've been there!"

"What's its purpose?" Lelei asked.

"It's both an observation deck and restaurant," Eric answered.

"I should take this moment to contact General Hazama," Youji said as he takes his tablet out and leaves the bus to get a better reception.

Once outside, Youji contacts him with the news.

"That's great, Itami," General Hazama beamed. "So how soon do you think you'll be able to return?"

"Hopefully tomorrow," Youji answered. "We'll be taking a plane to fly out of here."

"Tempting fate, are we?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Listen, before I go, we picked up another survivor over here." And Youji proceeds to tell the General about Samantha.

"I can bring her out here if you want," Youji finished up.

"Certainly."

Youji calls for Samantha and she steps outside and is introduced to the General.

"Good day, Samantha Taylor-san," General Hazama said in stilted English. "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing okay," Samantha said sheepishly.

"When you come over here, we'll get you settled away . . . Itami?"

"Yes, General?'

"I'll be leaving you to attend to the rescue of Arpeggio. Hopefully, we'll be getting to meet face-to-face tomorrow."

"So do I," Youji mused.

"Goodbye for now."

"Goodbye for now." And Youji shuts the tablet off and they board the bus once again. "Let's go, Lelei."

They drive into the city proper over its freeway. Houses and other buildings give way to skyscrapers. All the while, they keep a lookout for the Space Needle. As always, they pass more stalled vehicles and more odds and ends strewn about. There are even acts of vandalism to be seen of the city as there are buildings with blackened areas upon them, minus their windows.

"You know," Eric suddenly said, "Tokyo may have been creepy with its lack of people, but this place is downright scary; not only for the lack of people, but also how everyone here went batshit crazy as the world was falling apart."

"That's certainly true," Youji noted.

Eric tells Samantha about his observations of Seattle.

"I've heard about it on the news too," Samantha added. "Riots, looting. I didn't wanna believe it at first . . . But I didn't wanna take any chances after what had happened to my sister before all that."

"Oh yeah, you told us about that when you were telling us about how you went about stealing the humvee," Eric said.

"Care to share, Eric?" Rory mused.

"I was just telling her about how Seattle looks more scarier than Tokyo with the vandalism and all. She agreed with me too."

"I think I can sense Miss Arpeggio," Yao suddenly said.

"Where?" Youji asked.

"She's somewhat distant, so it's hard to tell, but she's in that direction." As Yao points.

"Go up next to Lelei and direct her," Youji said.

Yao does just that.

"What's going on?" Samantha asked Eric.

"Yao can sense people. She thinks she can sense Lelei's stepsister, but she's distant and is directing Lelei to her. Or more accurately to the Space Needle since that is where she's waiting."

Through Yao's directions, Lelei drives the bus down various streets, though some are blocked as they have traffic still on them. Many streets on the other hand look as if they had been cleared.

"You know," Eric began, "there was also a ship with survivors that came from here in Seattle. Granted, I never mentioned that before, but now that we are here and all. I'm surprised that General Hazama never tried to recruit someone who came from here."

"That's because he wasn't dealing with any of them directly," Youji answered.

Lelei turns down another street and they see it through buildings.

"That's it! The Space Needle!" Eric exclaimed while pointing.

"Oh yes I can feel her presence now," Yao stated. "She's definitely inside there, up at the top."

A few more turns down streets and they are soon driving into an open area with the Space Needle looming over them. They stop and get out to stare up at Seattle's main attraction.

"So she's inside there," Rory said.

"I doubt she used its elevator to get up there," Eric said. "Given that there's no power for it."

"The stairs then," Lelei said.

The gang enter the Space Needle and look around. There is a gift shop of which had been looted as well. They next hear an ever increasingly loud scream from the direction of a steel door with a glass window in it. They see a brief blur in its window and next hear a loud bang of something hitting it. They hear a loud groan behind it. Lelei walks over and opens the door to see Arpeggio lying on the floor groaning with an open mouth and her eyes as swirling spirals.

"Alfe! What happened?!" Lelei asked with concern as she kneels to help Arpeggio up.

"I . . . I wanted to . . . meet up with all of you as soon as possible," Arpeggio gasped as she gets up. "So . . . I formed a slide funnel down the stairs and . . . and then I put up my shield."

"You could've simply waited for us," Lelei said dryly with that humorous frowning disproval. "We were going to climb those stairs to the top."

"If you spent two days and nights here all alone in this graveyard of a city, you'd be eager to meet up too!" Arpeggio snapped.

"Now that we have met up with Arpeggio," Youji said. "I think it's best we go look for a proper plane that Kamikoda and Kurihama can handle."

"Itami's talking about finding an airplane," Eric said to Samantha.

"If it's an airplane you're looking for what about the King County International Airport since it's the closest?" Samantha suggested, of which Eric translated. "I read it in that atlas."

"Yeah, that would be a good place to start," Kamikoda said.

"Let's go then," Youji said. "Oh, and Arpeggio. This is Eric Fedkin who came over here with us because he understands this part of the world. And this is Samantha Taylor, whom we picked up on this continent while on our way north to reach you, but she doesn't understand our language."

They leave the Space Needle and enter the bus, again with Lelei driving.

"Ah, do you remember the route we took to get here, Lelei?" Eric asked. "Because we did a lot of turns to get here."

"Don't worry, I can find our way out," Lelei answered.

True to Lelei's word, they do find the way out and reach the turnoff to the King County International Airport. They make their way to the massive runway to see planes of all sorts and sizes lined up.

"Are all these passenger planes?" Rory asked.

"Yes, they are," Youji said. "As a national quarantine was imposed, the planes were forced to park and wait until it ended. And it looks like we'll have to take one of the smaller ones to get there. Isn't that right, Kamikoda, Kurihama?"

"You bet," Kamikoda agreed.

"That we do," Kurihama added.

"As much as we should go right now, we should really get going early tomorrow morning," Youji said.

"Agreed," Kamikoda said. "But that's assuming the weather cooperates."

"Before all this," Kurihama said, "if we wanted to know if the weather was going to be good for flying it was simply a matter of calling up the flight tower because they frequently updated their weather forecasts. Now . . . we just have to hope that the weather is going to cooperate because for all that we know it might be stormy or foggy tomorrow."

Eric informs Samantha that they were talking about the weather, of which she replies through Eric. "That's the problem. This part of the continent is frequented by rain and fog."

Youji grumbles with a close eyed frown as he rubs the back of his head.

"Anyway," he finally said with a look of resolve forward. "We should agree on a suitable plane to take us all back."


	16. Chapter 15

The group look over the various planes they have at their disposal. They do not take long before they settle on an Airbus A318.

"Then all that needs to be done is simply get inside it," Youji said. "For that, we can use a mobile staircase." As he looks around for one, prompting the others to look.

"What is it we're looking for exactly, Youji?" Rory asked.

"A mobile staircase," he answered.

"I don't see any around," Eric said.

"Then we'll just have to improvise," Youji said. "Make use of something that will get us up there and open that door."

"Like a truck maybe?" Kurihama suggested.

"Like a truck," Youji said.

With Youji in the lead, the gang begin searching for a truck that is high enough for them to board the plane. They soon find one in the form of a firetruck.

"That should do it," Youji said. "All we have to do is park it next to the plane. I'll maneuver it over there. Lelei, do your thing first."

She unlocks the door and starts the engine up. Youji gets in and drives it over to alongside the plane, where he carefully manouvers it so that it is directly alongside the door of the plane to be a mere step in. Youji shuts the truck off and gets out.

"As you can see," Youji began for the benefit of the Special Area inhabitants, "this sort of truck is meant to be climbed upon." Pointing out the ladders and the step on the side.

"Then let's get climbing," Arpeggio said as she begins her ascent. "Lelei's not the only one who can open doors with magic, Itami. But I guess being her betrothed makes you forget that." Her tone dripping with curtness as she gives him a shrunken iris glare.

"Betrothed?" Eric mused.

"It's a misunderstanding," Youji said with a close-eyed uneasy smile.

Arpeggio reaches the top and walks up to the door. She touches the door and a clunk is heard. The door immediately moves inward and swivels away.

"Good work, Arpeggio," Youji said. "Now we can get inside."

One-by-one, they climb atop the truck and get inside the plane and have a look around, with Kamikoda and Kurihama checking out the cockpit.

"This plane looks like it can seat one hundred people," Youji said.

"Now that this is settled, we should go and find a place to bed down for the night," Youji said.

"How about we bed down in the plane?" Eric suggested. "We can simply move the seats back into makeshift beds."

"I suppose we could," Youji said. "Let's get out stuff onboard."

They leave the plane and return to their bus to take out their supplies, then return to the plane and put them inside up in the compartments. The door is next closed.

"I just hope that there are truly no more people left on this continent that we end up leaving behind," Youji commented absently.

"If they failed to come, then that is their problem," Rory said.

"But what about Samantha-san?" Youji asked.

"Oh Youji," Rory sighed as if explaining to a child, "the only reason she's with us is that we happened to be in the right place at the right time. If there are still more survivors out there, then it is up to them to make the journey, just like the rest did. We just can't go meandering throughout this land hoping to blunder into any more survivors."

"What are they talking about?" Samantha asked Eric.

"They're talking about their hope that there are no more survivors that we might end up leaving behind, using you as reference." Eric then turns to Youji. "Rory does have a point, Itami."

"We could send out broadcasts over the airwaves," Youji said.

"Samantha, did you listen to any radios after the power went out?" Eric asked.

"No," Samantha answered.

"Not only that, Samantha was too scared to go to Japan," Eric continued with the others. "So even if she did manage to listen to such a broadcast, I sincerely doubt she would've gone over. The only reason I went to Japan was because I was more afraid of that asteroid than the journey itself." Then relays this to Samantha, who agrees with Eric.

"I still think that we should at least try to send out some sort of message to any survivors who might still be out there," Youji sighed. "I could contact General Hazama so that he can have such a broadcast sent out."

"And I doubt that there's as many people still out there as you suspect there of being," Rory said.

As the sun sets, they note the redness of the sky over the western horizon.

"Red sky at night, sailor's delight," Eric said. "But red sky in the morning, sailors take warning."

"Then let's hope that the sky at dawn is orange," Tuka said.

They push back their seats to turn into makeshift beds. Tuka casts the spell of sleep over everyone.

They awaken early the next morning just before sunrise.

"Wow, that sleep spell is amazing!" Samantha marveled as she gets up then stretches. "A cure for insomnia even!"

They look at the eastern horizon. The sky is mostly clear.

"The sky is orange," Kamikoda noted.

"That is an orange sky if there ever was one," Kurihama added.

"So does that mean we will have good weather for flying?" Yao asked.

"Around here, yes," Kamikoda answered. "But further out over the ocean . . . ? Let's just hope that it extends all the way to Japan."

After they had finished eating and whatnot, they open the door.

"Okay, now to get that truck out of the way," Youji said as he gets down onto the top. "But first, I have to put it into neutral."

He gets down and moves the gearshift into neutral, then gets back upon the top of the truck and back into the plane. Lelei raises her staff as she chants something, making it glow. The truck begins moving backwards and off the runway. Lelei stops her spell.

"Okay, that should do it," she said.

"Then let's get going," Youji said, then closes the door and locks it.

Lelei extends her arms as the crystal atop her staff glows and the plane starts up. Kamikoda and Kurihama enter the cockpit and check out the controls.

"Good news, there's plenty of fuel in the tank," Kamikoda called out.

"So buckle up everyone because we're on our way," Kurihama said.

Everyone finds their seats in a plane that can seat up to a little over one hundred people and put on their seatbelts. After what seems like minutes of checking out the plane on the pilot's part, it begins to move out of its spot and turns down the runway. With the planes parked off on either side, there is nothing to interfere with takeoff. The plane reaches the end of the runway and then turns and begins to accelerate. Once they reach top speed, the plane begins to rise and the wheels tuck away into its wells.

They keep climbing ever higher as they fly to the west with the sun behind them. Everyone is seated in their own row next to a window, with the Special Region inhabitants gazing out through them.

"Let's just hope that we don't go running into another storm on our way over," Eric said.

"W-We're flying!" Arpeggio said distantly with wide eyes and shrunken irises.

"Yes, Alfe, we're flying," Lelei said dryly from behind her.

Arpeggio starts to gasp and turns away as she lowers her head, clasping it with that pie-eyed shrunken iris look.

"Alfe, what's wrong?" Lelei asked.

"F-Flying! We're flying!" Arpeggio gasped hoarsely.

"I think she's afraid of flying!" Samantha exclaimed.

Arpeggio breathing grows more erratic. "I can't breathe . . . ! I can't breathe!"

Lelei is quick to begin chanting and unleashes her sleep spell upon Arpeggio, who succumbs to it peacefully.

"I guess we now know that she has aerophobia," Youji said. "A fear of flying."

It is night time as the airplane is flying toward the illuminated runway of the Narita International Airport in Tokyo. It had been a long flight for Youji and his team and they are glad to be landing. The weather had cooperated during their flight.

'We're coming in for a landing, everyone,' Kamikoda announced over the public announcement. 'So everyone buckle up.' As the buckle up sign lights up.

Down below in the tower are JSDF personnel watching as the plane descends. There are even personnel waiting around the runway in case of an emergency. The plane soon touches down, much to the relief of all those on board.

"Lelei, you can wake Arpeggio now," Youji said.

Lelei does so and Arpeggio bolts upright with a look of terror.

"Alfe, relax," Lelei assured her. "We're here! We're back in Japan. You've been asleep the whole time."

Arpeggio sighs deeply. "I'll be so glad when I can get off this flying contraption!"

The plane taxis along until it comes to a stop. Everyone removes their seatbelts with Youji getting up to open the door. Fresh cool air blows in as he looks outside at the surrealism that the lights around are giving off. Mobile stairs are being driven up to the door. Once in position, they begin getting off. Someone comes running up to them. It is Sergeant Major Kuwahara Souichirou.

"General Hazama has been informed of your return and will meet with you all tomorrow. You'll be staying near the Gate for now."

"Got it," Youji said, then gestures. "Oh, and this is Samantha Taylor, we picked her up in America."

"Please to meet you," Souichirou said cordially in English, of which Samantha nodded in return.

They follow Souichirou to a waiting bus and are driven along.

"Where are we going?" Samantha asked Eric, of which he translated to Youji.

"To a hotel for the night," Youji answered back through Eric.

They get on the bus and are driven into Tokyo. With enough lighting they can see about the place.

"Wow, you guys got your electricity up and running?!" Samantha marveled while staring out the window, of which Eric translated.

"It must have been after we left," Youji answered.

"It's been a long time since I last saw lightbulbs working," Samantha said.

They pass through the Ginza District where there is more activity about the Gate. They turn down a street and stop before a hotel and get out.

"Right this way, everyone," Sergeant Major Kuwahara said.

They enter the hotel and are settled in for the night with their respective rooms. Before they go off to their rooms, however, they have a conversation in the lobby area.

"Eric," Samantha said. "Ask him," referring to Youji, "if all of the refugees that came from other countries are now over in the Special Area?"

Eric relayed this to Youji, who answers through Eric. "Yes, they are. And tomorrow, you'll be over there with them as well. You'll be settled into a tent. It won't be too rugged mind you, but it will be nice in comparison to a camper trailer."

"I think I understand," Samantha said.

"It'll be good to get back tomorrow," Rory said.

They turn in for the night to their respective rooms. The next morning, they are up with Samantha ready. They are in the dining room having breakfast.

"Eric," Samantha said. "You've been over there. What's it like?"

"She's asking me what it's like over there," Eric said to the others, then answers Samantha. "It's like Comic Con over there everyday, particularly on the Dungeons and Dragons part."

"So when do we leave?" Samantha asked, of which Eric translated to Youji, who answers. "Right after breakfast."

Once they finish their breakfast, they are driven up to the Gate, where they get out. Samantha stares up at the white dome over the Gate, then looks at the Gate itself.

"Wow, it looks just like a Roman arch!" Samantha mused.

"It does, doesn't it," Eric said. "There's a theory that the last time that Gate opened into our world was in Europe during the height of the Roman Empire. The thing is that there are no historical records about such a Gate. Although it might explain the stories of Elves, Dwarves, Dragons, and other mythical creatures. A few of them might have come through the Gate and got trapped here as Humans were going through to the other side and became trapped there as well."

"If it opened in Europe, then that explains Rory, Lelei, and Arpeggio's Caucasoid appearances," Samantha said. "Ask them if there any Humans of Asian or African heritage from the Special Area?"

Eric relays this to any who are listening.

"You mean Humans like Youji or his people?" Rory asked. "Or even those Humans with skin darker than a Dark Elf's . . . ? No. And I have wandered that whole world for hundreds of years."

Eric relays this back to Samantha.

"I figured as much," Samantha said.

"Okay, let's get you registered Samantha-san," Youji said, with Eric translating. "And then we will go through the Gate. Back when there were hordes of people passing through, we had to put a mark of unwashable ink on them so that we could track them down and register them afterwards. But now, with so few refugees showing up anymore, we can carry this out here."

Samantha walks up to the booth to give personal information to the clerk about herself. Next, it is her picture being taken. Once it had been taken, she is given an identity card and allowed to go on her way.

She stands with the others before the opened dome with the Gate before them.

"You ready, Samantha-san?" Youji asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be," she answered with a tone of eagerness.

Everyone walks into the dome and through the Gate.


	17. Chapter 16

They emerge into the Special Area, directly into Alnus of which has since swelled into a city as tens of thousands of refugees have made it their new home. The non-Humans are what really grabs Samantha's attention.

"You're right, Eric! It really is like Dungeons and Dragons!"

A girl approaches them, wearing what looks like a leather bodice with a matching miniskirt, along with a feathered headdress. What really catches Samantha's attention about the girl are her exceptionally hairy forearms and shins, strange feet, and vertically slit pupils. It is then that Samantha notices that her feathered headdress is really her hair as are what is on her forearms and shins.

"Itami! Your holiness! Everyone! You've all returned with Arpeggio I see!" The strange girl said delightfully.

"That we have, Myuute," Rory answered. "And look, we even found another refugee along the way." As she gestures to Samantha. "We picked her up quite by accident really on another continent where Arpeggio was stuck. Her name is Samantha Taylor and she doesn't know Japanese nor our language for that matter. She can only speak a language called, In-gleesh."

"Oh, well hello there, Sam-anth-ah Tay-lor," Myuute said to Samantha intently as she waves at her.

"Ah, Myuute-san, we have to be going," Youji said. "We are needed down at headquarters."

"See you later then, your holiness," Myuute said.

They are on their way. As it was with Myuute, Samantha can see that the people she is with are well known about the place as strangers shout their hellos.

Youji and the gang make it to headquarters and are escorted to General Hazama.

"Congratulations on your recovery," he said. "Maybe Arpeggio-san will learn not to do things she does not understand." As he gives Arpeggio a stern look in an equally stern tone.

"Y-Yes," she answered.

"So we finally meet, Samantha Taylor-san," General Hazama said to Samantha in English.

"I guess we finally do," Samantha answered.

"You may need to consider taking language lessons," General Hazama said.

"That I will," Samantha answered.

"So there were no other survivors around there before Itami and the others showed up?" General Hazama asked Samantha.

"I am from the coastline of Oregon, a place that did not have a large population to begin with, especially a hamlet called Ophir, where I came from; so there were no other survivors around there. Although before the radio stations went down, I did hear about people on the move, so I took a camper and fled into the forest . . . So what now?"

"Now you will be housed in the refugee quarters where there are tents set up," General Hazama answered.

Samantha is shown to those quarters where she is given a fresh change of clothes and a ration card. She even goes to the women's bathes to freshen up, as do the other females who are with her. It is as they are disrobing that their forms are revealed.

"You are well-proportioned, Samantha," Rory noted.

"And you definitely have a form not befitting someone who is nearly a thousand years old," Samantha countered with a humorously amazed tone, then it comes to her. "Wait a minute, how is it that you can speak English all of a sudden?"

"Being a Demigod gives me the ability to overcome language barriers," Rory answered. "Unfortunately it took more time than I had anticipated because it only took me a shorter time with Youji. I think it was because he was knocked out at that time or something."

"That is an enviable talent," Samantha said. "Then again, so is being a Demigod."

"But when I turn a thousand, I won't be flesh, bone, and blood anymore," Rory said. "I will transcend into spirit, then godhood."

"Now those two definitely have forms men drool over," Samantha marveled as she looks over at Tuka and Yao, then at Arpeggio. "And of course, her too."

They get down to bathing as Samantha wets herself over then lathers her hair.

"I notice that Itami is quite popular around here," Samantha said.

"That he is," Rory said.

"So are you all a part of his harem?" Samantha joked.

"Although he and Lelei are supposed to be married," Rory said.

Samantha shoots a look of shock at Lelei. "Married?! How old is she?! Or Itami for that matter?!"

"He is thirty-five and she is sixteen," Rory answered.

"What are you talking about?" Arpeggio asked with a scowl. "I can tell it's about Lelei and Itami."

"I was just telling Samantha about their betrothal," Rory said slyly.

"They're not really married," Arpeggio interjected with annoyance.

"According to Rurudo custom he is," Lelei countered. "If a man and woman spend three nights-"

"But he's not Rurudo!" Arpeggio interjected. "And besides, that custom is only valid if both the man and woman understand and go through with it. He was ignorant of the whole thing. So your marriage to him is a sham." Sneering at the word, marriage.

"Ah, could we please just bathe in peace?" Tuka is quick to interject with a close eyed smile of unease. "I don't think anybody here wants a repeat of Rondel."

"What's going on?" Samantha asked Rory, who fills Samantha in on the details.

"Oh, so she's jealous then," Samantha concluded.

After their bathing, Samantha returns to her tent. She sits on her bed then flops back onto it, pondering her future. She will be living here in this strange world, along with the rest of Earth's surviving Humans. To think that there were Humans already living here for some two thousand years! And still living a way of life that is like some transition between the Roman and Medieval world!

The first part of this new life is having to learn the local language. Tomorrow, she will sign up for language lessons. Then after that . . . who knows.

* * *

No more refugees show up in Japan; meaning that there are no more people left on Earth, or that there are a very few who did not bother to come. The refugees that have come, their numbers are now known and they number forty-six thousand, since thousands died on their way over to Japan. Ethnic-wise, the Japanese possess the highest numbers simply because of the thousands of JSDF personnel who were trapped in the Special Area back when it was under quarantine. The number of refugees will rise over time when they start having children, for depopulation inevitably causes birthrates to rise.

As the refugees settled in, they inevitably cluster in quarters with their own ethnicity. In the Old World, ethnic identity matters but in the New World it was not so much. Nevertheless, those from the New World settled in amongst those of the Old World due to linguistics. The transition is difficult though as they had gone from living in a world they took for granted into a world that is alien to them. They take classes to learn the local language and even jobs to support themselves and contribute to Alnus City.

All seems to move along without major incidents . . .

* * *

It has been nearly two years since the quarantine had been lifted, along with the incidents involving Youji, Rory, and the others with their having to retrieve Arpeggio from America. In two days, the asteroid will finally strike Earth. All during that time leading up to this, the JSDF had a telescope trained on the night sky in the area that the asteroid will be coming from. Sure enough, they spotted it as the date for Doomsday came closer, as the people of Earth were calling it. The JSDF had mined the entire Gate on Earth's side with enough explosives so that the Gate will be instantly destroyed, thus shutting off Earth from the Special Area. And yet they want to hold off as long as they can because they also want to record the images of destruction that will result from the asteroid's impact through cameras that they had set up in strategic locations throughout Japan, beaming the images into the Special Area into their recording equipment.

What is so noteworthy about this moment is that not only is it two days before Doomsday, but the inhabitants of Alnus City have gathered in the vicinity of the Gate. The JSDF are also there as well, and all are looking on in awe.

It has to do with the Gods of the Special Area being there before them, each accompanied by their respective apostle. Only eleven are present actually since Wareharun is actually a sapient forest that evolved into a demigod all on its own without the aid of any god. And being a forest means being unable to move.

Youji stands near Rory as she genuflects before Emroy. The God of War, Crime, Madness, and Darkness is in the form of a muscular yellow-eyed goth towering head and shoulders over Youji, with long black shaggy mane-like hair and a long chin curtain beard that gives him a leonine appearance. His attire is black armor with spiked shoulders and a black cape.

Youji cannot help but to feel a little uneasy, especially with his thoughts since he understands that these gods can read minds while in their incorporeal state. Emroy moves his mouth, clearly speaking to Rory.

"Lord Emroy says that you mind your thoughts well, Youji," Rory said.

"After dealing with Hardy, I now know what to do," Youji said.

Emroy begins speaking once again, and Rory darts a look of shock back at Youji.

"Youji, prepare yourself!"

"Wha-"

Only to be cut off as Emroy possesses him. The other gods do this as well with the various corporeal beings around, with Hardy possessing Lelei once again.

As it had been with possessed Lelei, their appearances change to reflect the deity possessing them. Lelei's hair grows out once again and her face takes on that smug expression, while Youji grows more muscular and his hair and beard grows out in the manner of Emroy's to frame his now grim face with yellowed irises. Lunaryur, the Goddess of Music, had possessed Tuka, giving her a more stately appearance. But La and Elange, the twin Gods of Study and Knowledge had not possessed anyone and are simply floating as they are, but over their Apostle, a Hobbit male.

"C-Captain?!" Shino gasped.

"It's not Youji!" Rory stated. "It's Emroy in Youji's body! But I don't know if his mind will survive a divine possession!"

"You mean he could be brain damaged after this?!" Mari exclaimed.

"Amazing," Emroy/Youji said in a voice that definitely did not sound like Youji as it was a voice that sounded like rumbling thunder. "I always thought one was either a coward or a warrior, but this mortal proves otherwise! He seems cowardly and will run from danger, and yet he will stand and fight to win, even if it endangers his own life . . . ! What an odd combination! He is a very rare soul indeed. I guess Hardy was not exaggerating after all." As he turns to look over at Hardy/Lelei, who walks up to them, accompanied by Giselle.

"He is indeed a strange mortal," Hardy/Lelei said, then turns to Rory and strokes her hair. "Ooh, I would so much like to enjoy you."

Rory winces and pulls away while slapping Hardy/Lelei's hand away with a disgusted expression.

"I thought gods were above stuff like that," Shino sneered with a lazy expression and a large sweatdrop. "I didn't think one of them was a horn dog."

"Hey! Mind your mouth!" Giselle growled menacingly as she gets into Shino's face and pokes one of Shino's breasts hard, causing Shino to wince with pain and fall back.

"Argh! That hurt, lizard bitch!" Shino snarled with a glare as she clasps at her breast.

"Be thankful I didn't poke a hole through your titty and cause your milk to gush out," Giselle sneered.

"Since you're a Demigoddess that just means I can go all out on you," Shino said dangerously as she punches her own palm.

"And I can turn you into a sloppy mess," Giselle sneered as she takes a battle stance with her scythe.

"Now, now, that's enough," Hardy/Lelei chided playfully. "As much as I would like to see a fight, there is no time for that."

"What do you mean by that?" Rory asked.

"What she means is that we have come to inform you all that we are leaving this world for the other one," Emroy/Youji answered.

A stunned silence falls over the crowd.

"D-Did you just say what I thought you just said?" Rory asked in a mute tone of shock.

"You heard correctly, Rory," Hardy said as she walks over.

"Wha-What about the Apocryph?!" Rory gasped.

"What's that?" Shino asked Rory.

"There is a prophecy that the gods will leave the world and Humans will vanish from it," Rory answered. "Then a fog called the Apocryph will come and swallow up the whole world and return it to primal chaos."

"Will it now?" Hardy mused. "Prophecies are rarely as literal as they sound."

"I don't see what's not literal about it, Mistress!" Giselle stated. "You said that you gods are leaving this world behind!"

"And just what will you become when you turn one thousand years old, Giselle?" Hardy asked. "Or even the rest of you Apostles for that matter?"

There is a moment of silence.

"Gods," an Apostle said, a female Elf.

The Apostles always knew they will transcend their bodies and become gods themselves, but it was always under the assumption that they were going to become their benefactor's equal. Never did they think that they might be their replacement.

"We did all that we could for this world," Tuka/Lunaryur added. "So we are leaving it for that other one."

"But it's going to be turned into a charred wasteland in two days," Shino said.

"What's your point, mortal?" Zufmuut, the God of Light and Order, said rhetorically from the body of a Human man. "It just means that we will have a new world to fix up and make anew."

"It will take a lot of time, of which we are happy it will take," The Hobbit Apostle of La and Elange said for them.

"And then we will repopulate it with sapient beings once again," Miritta, the Goddess of Fertility and Birth, added as she is using the body of a Human woman.

"We will open the Gate to other worlds once again after we fix up that world," Duncan, the God of Smithing said through the body of a male Dwarf.

"Who knows," Flare, the God of the Sun added through the body of a Human man, his hair made brilliantly blonde. "Maybe the Gate will open into this world once again at some immensely distant point in the future?"

"But Master," Granham, a male Elf and Flare's Apostle, said. "Even though we will all transcend into godhood, that won't be for years to come."

"He's right," Mabel Forn, Zufmuut's Apostle said. She is a Human woman with short hair and carrying a sword with a blood red blade. "Up until we transcend, there won't be any gods, and that could cause trouble our world."

"It's nothing that you Demigods cannot deal with," Palapon, the God of Revenge, said through the body of a Wolven male. "And besides, Wareharun will still be around to keep some things in order."

"You've all gotten strong," Deldort, the God of Covenants, said through the body of a Human man.

"Y-You praise us too much," Mortar Mobkis, a Dwarf who is Duncan's Apostle, stammered.

"Nonsense," Tuka/Lunaryur said dismissively. "All of you have nearly one thousand years of experience."

"The time has come for us to leave this world and enter the doomed one," Emroy/Youji said.

"Let us not make this goodbye long," Palapon said, then leaves his host, who in turn collapses. Palapon floats toward the Gate and enters.

The other gods leave their hosts as well, causing their hosts to collapse as well and be tended to by those closest to them. There is concern that their brains may have been damaged and they could be left a vegetable. Most of them recover as they stand with a headache, save for one, a male Wolven, who still lies there. Youji and Lelei also recover from the experience and look toward the Gate. They see the eleven gods floating side-by-side beyond the Gate facing them.

An explosion occurs on the other side of the Gate, causing it to collapse. Those pieces fade away, leaving nothing.


	18. Chapter 17

The crowd silently stare at where the Gate had once been.

"They must've set off the explosives," Youji said, breaking the silence. His hair still long and still sporting that chin curtain.

"It's hard to believe that they're gone!" Rory gasped distantly. "That they're really gone! And that we will be taking their place in the future!"

"I for one am proud to carry on Mistress Hardy's legacy," Giselle said haughtily with closed eyes as she thumbs to herself.

"Will that include lusting after Rory?" Youji asked dryly.

Rory laughs and Giselle gives him a white-eyed snarl of irritation.

"Now what about you, Rory?" Youji next asked her.

"What do you mean, Youji?" As she sighs and wipes a tear away.

"Are you gonna carry on Emroy's legacy or were you serious about what you told me back then? About becoming the Goddess of Love?"

Now it is Giselle's turn to laugh as she bellows and clutches at her own stomach while doubling over.

"Y-You?!" She rasped while pointing at Rory. "Th-The G-Goddess of L-Love?!" Tears stream down her face she she struggles to remain standing erect. "Th-That's the st-stupidest thing I've ever heard!"

Giselle continues laughing raucously; only to suddenly shut up and fall to the ground writhing after Rory sends her head flying to bounce along the ground.

"Aaaahhhh, sh-she j-just ch-chopped h-her h-head off!" Samantha screamed from nearby with a pie-eyed shrunken iris expression while clasping her own head with one hand and pointing ardently at the scene with the other.

"Relax, Samantha-chan, she's immortal too," Youji called as he waves at her assuredly. "Observe."

Youji walks over and picks up Giselle's head, then turns it around to face him. Giselle blinks with a bewildered expression.

"You should quit while you're ahead," Youji said dryly.

Giselle gives him a humorous frown with a large sweatdrop. Along with the rest who hear that.

"Maybe your head needs to go bouncing, Commander," Shino said in a flat flustered tone.

Youji walks over to Giselle's twitching body and kneels down to reposition her head to line it up with the stump. Giselle's head reattaches and she suddenly starts gasping, then clutches at her throat while Youji steps away. She stands once again while picking up her scythe.

"That . . . That was uncalled for!" Giselle rasped angrily.

"Then don't mock me!" Rory stated dangerously as she hefts her halberd.

"What foolishness!" Another female voice exclaimed with outrage, getting Rory's attention.

Mabel Forn, the Apostle of Zufmuut, marches up to Rory with red sword in hand. Emroy and Zufmuut were each other's opposites, compelling Mabel to regard Emroy and Rory as her enemies.

"You served that maniac of a god for nearly a thousand years simply by slaying others in his name! Where's the love in that?!" Mabel's tone was indigent and furious as she points her sword at Rory's face.

"I could ask you the very same thing, Mabel," Rory said in an icy smarmy manner while casually pushing Mabel's sword away with her halberd, causing the weapons to clink. "After all . . . you're hands are bloody too."

"But there's less blood on my hands than there is on yours," Mabel snapped. "That makes me better suited for the role of Goddess of Love than you ever will be!"

"Oh now that's funny," Rory retorted. "You're better off being the Goddess of Prudes."

Mabel snarls as she rapidly lifts her sword to strike Rory.

"Enough!" Youji shouted, freezing Mabel in pose and causing her to look at him.

"Youji," Rory marveled softly. "I see Emroy has rubbed off on you."

"So that's the mortal you have a thing for," Mabel mused sarcastically.

"You have years left to figure all this out," Youji said curtly. "So there's no need for fighting!"

"He's right," Granham said as he walks over. "We all have a long time to figure out our places. Although I for one wouldn't mind becoming the God of Love."

"That was Mistress Miritta's unofficial role," Miritta's Apostle said as she walks over. "So when I finally ascend to carry on her legacy, I will make the role of love official. It is only fitting really, because love inspires mortals to reproduce. Although I will void the part of ordering women to prostitute themselves."

"Hey, I got a question here," Shino interjected as she raised her hand. "With the gods of this region now gone and over in our old world, what's going to happen here in the meantime? I mean, their presence definitely had an impact, so what's to be expected?"

"There's going to be a period of turmoil," Rory answered. "The things that they kept from happening are going to start happening."

"You mean like the dead could start walking now that Hardy is no longer around to prevent that from happening?" Youji asked.

"Like she ever prevented them from walking in the first place," Rory grumbled.

"What are you talking about?" Giselle asked.

Rory tells her about the zombie incident with the women in that village full of men.

"Whoa, I'm surprised Mistress ever allowed that to happen!" Giselle said incredulously.

"That's because she was too busy lusting after me to do her job right," Rory snapped.

"So I take it in the meantime for years to come, we're going to have problems with the walking dead?" Youji asked.

"Possibly," Giselle answered.

"Then we're going to be busy staving off problems until we all ascend to godhood," Mortar Mobkis said.

"The gods left this world to us so that they could go over to the other world and claim it for their own," Granham said as he looks toward where the Gate had once been.

"It won't be anything that we cannot handle," Rory said. "Especially with Wareharun still around. In the meantime, this may be a solemn affair, but it is also one that calls for celebration. It is the beginning of a new world."

"A new world huh?" Youji pondered.

"Speaking of new," Rory said, "that is quite the mane Emroy grew out on you Youji. It makes you look so strong."

"You think?" Youji pondered as he fingers his long black locks.

"Ugh, he looks so disturbingly manly," Shino grumbled with a twisted expression involving shrunken irises.

* * *

As the future new gods understood, it will be a new world. The mood is both solemn and excited. Grim over the inhabitants of the Special Area now having to live without the gods that they once worshiped for thousands of years, and excited over the divine roles that the Demigods will take when they finally ascend. To the refugees, especially the JSDF, they understand that having been permanently separated from their world means being permanently separated from its resources, especially weaponry. In the time they had from re-entering Earth after the quarantine and up until yesterday, they had been extracting and stockpiling weaponry, ammunition, and other supplies. At the same time they were also getting materials to set up various industries in an effort to maintain the world they once knew, if only on a smaller scale.

* * *

Third Recon Unit are sitting in the PX diner with Rory, Lelei, Tuka, Yao, and Arpeggio. Eric and Samantha are with them as well. Samantha is more proficient in the local language and does not depend upon someone for translation so much.

"Today's the day that asteroid hits our world," Youji said somberly. "I wonder how much damage its going to do?"

"Given that's its big enough to wipe out most lifeforms, it will turn Earth into an oven," Souichirou said.

"You think the gods can stop that asteroid, Rory?" Eric asked.

"No, and why would they want to? They're going to have a clean slate to work with."

"They're probably going to miss all those buildings and vehicles and other technological wonders that they had no doubt been examining," Samantha said in the stilted tone of the language.

"If that asteroid does as much damage as we anticipate, then there will hardly be anything left of what was built over there," Mari said.

"So just how powerful were those gods anyway, Rory?" Akira asked.

"They were powerful enough to keep undesirable forces at bay," Rory answered. "They could also shape lands and even lifeforms as well. Although that did not stop them from enticing other lifeforms from other worlds by opening the Gate into those worlds, as they did into your own."

"I thought mages opened the Gate into our world?" Youji asked.

"We mages can ultimately only do what the gods permitted us to do," Lelei answered, "especially with Hardy where that Gate was concerned. But now that they are gone, there are really no inhibitors upon us."

"I don't know about that, Lelei," Rory said. "After all, when the day comes that we ascend, we will be insuring that nothing dangerous happens to this world."

"Here that, Alfe? No more experimenting with dangerous spells," Lelei said in a drywit with that humorous glare.

"Why you!" Arpeggio shot up out of her seat. "Don't get uppity just because you're a genius! Or do you want to finish our previous battle?" As she takes out her bolas.

"Enough!" Youji shot up angrily. "Arpeggio, put those away! There's going to be no battle around here unless you want to be arrested for destruction of property and endangerment of people's lives."

Arpeggio puts her bolas away and sits down.

"Rory," Youji said. "Do you really intent to become the Goddess of Love?"

Mari starts giggling while pressing her hand against her own mouth in an effort to not burst out laughing. The whole room is silent and everyone is regarding Rory with bemusement. They are careful though, given as to what she did to Giselle the other day.

"What's so funny, Mari?" Rory asked icily.

"Those forms those gods had," Mari sighed as she wipes away a tear from the corner of her eye. "Were those their true forms?"

"They take forms that they are the most comfortable with," Rory answered.

"Then those may as well have been their true forms," Mari said. "Look. What I'm trying to say is that when people think of a Goddess of Love, they think of a soft-spoken gentle woman bathed in light with fair skin, blonde hair, blue eyes, and wearing white outfits made of lace and frills."

"Hmph! When I ascend, I can easily change my form," Rory said with a pout. "And besides, Hardy appeared like that, but she was definitely no Goddess of Love."

"Isn't one of those other Apostles taking on that role?" Mari asked.

"She wants to," Rory said.

"If you do not want to follow in Emroy's footsteps," Youji said slowly. "Then why not still be similar to him, if not exactly?"

"What do you mean?" Rory asked.

"What I mean is that you're not completely like Emroy," Youji said. "When he was in my body, I got glimpses of his mind. He suited the roles of Darkness, War, Death, Violence, and Insanity quite well. If anything, you seem to be a . . . diluted version of him."

"Really?" Rory mused.

"Really," Youji answered. "Now, did any of those gods include justice in their roles?"

"No, although Zufmuut came the closest to having such a role, since he also had order in his role, something which is similar to justice. His Apostle is Mabel Forn, the one who threatened me."

"Then how about you become the Goddess of Justice?" Youji suggested.

"Justice," Rory mused. "That . . . could work. And I am older than Mabel, so I'll end up ascending before her; otherwise, she might try to claim that role for herself."

"That reminds me," Yao said. "Your holiness, when you ascend, will you also be selecting your Apostle as well?"

"Maybe, but not for an extremely long time coming," Rory said. "It was thousands of years before Emroy selected me, or before any of the other gods selected their own Apostles for that matter. Raising a Demigod is not casually done because when an Apostle finally ascends, they might not have a proper role to take on. A god without a role will eventually be compelled to take one on, even one they may not like and be eternally miserable for it."

"Anyway, you have almost forty years until you ascend," Youji said. "So there's still plenty of time to figure out the role you want."

"You'll be an old man by then," Rory said.

"Yeah, along with the others of my team," Youji said.

"Tuka and Yao won't be bothered by such a thing," Shino said. "But life goes on."

"The future of this world is going to be very different," Youji said.

"That it will be, Itami," Rory said, then takes a gulp of whisky. "That it will be."


	19. Epilogue

The asteroid plunges through Earth's atmosphere at a speed of ten miles per second, or thirty-six thousand miles per hour, as it glows with a temperature hot enough to boil iron. It impacts with the floor of the Pacific Ocean to explode with a force several thousand times greater than if all the existing nuclear warheads were to be placed in one spot and simultaneously detonated.

Within and near the impact zone, millions of gallons of seawater are flash boiled. Further away, a billion or so more gallons are brought to an instant boil while also being rolled into a mile high megatsunami to spread out in all directions. Hundreds of millions of tons of liquified rock are thrown into low orbit to spread throughout the atmosphere. In a few hours, all life within the Pacific Ocean will be dead, along with most other lifeforms elsewhere on Earth.

The mile high megatsunami washes over the islands of the Pacific Ocean to scour them of all life and Human creations. It eventually makes landfall throughout Asia, Australia, North America, South America, and Antarctica. The polar continent has very few in the way of Human structures to destroy, but the other continents have their Pacific coastlines overwhelmed by boiling seawater for miles inward, drowning forests and the animals that live in them. All that had been created by Humans are washed away, along with the corpses, as smaller structures are crushed or shoved off their foundations to be washed away then crushed. Larger structures are shoved over, especially skyscrapers. The tsunami that struck Japan back in 2011 was a mere ripple when compared to this megatsunami as it washes away the entire Pacific side of Japan.

The megatsunami not only directly afflicts the shoreline that faces the Pacific, but also the coves, bays, harbors, and straits as it raises the sea level throughout them with steaming water that flows over the land. Seattle is inundated by water that rises one hundred feet high all the way to Washington Lake, poisoning it with salt. Instead of being pulverized by the direct onslaught of the megatsunami, infrastructure is inundated so that only the upper floors of buildings are spared as vehicles, corpses, and other creations are washed away. The Space Needle remains standing as it had been designed to handle an earthquake up to a nine on the Richter Scale and even a Category Five hurricane.

The megatsunami pushes into the other oceans across the world since they are all interconnected, churning them up so that the entirety of the world's coastlines experience flooding as well.

It begins to rain fire as the hundreds of millions of tons of liquified rock falls back to Earth to burn vegetation, buildings, and anything else combustible. Small burrowing animals escape into the ground, but other animals that do not burrow have no such luck as conflagrations and firestorms engulf most of Earth's lands to raise the global temperature to lethal proportions. Along the coastlines, anything not drenched in water is burning, although not drenched for long. Gasoline and diesel that had been spilt on the water now burns.

A massive crater a couple of a hundred miles wide by some ten miles deep now exists on the floor of the Pacific Ocean. With the Earth's crust being naturally thinner in the oceans than on the continents and the intense pressure of the magma underneath that tries to find a way to the surface, the fresh crater cracks open and magma flows out. The vacuum that had been created by the impact subsides to cause the atmosphere and the rest of the Pacific Ocean to rush back in. By the time the ocean reaches the crater, it is halfway full of magma.

The ocean flash boils upon contact with the magma, but the ocean overwhelming drowns the crater to send colossal clouds of steam high into the stratosphere. The sea level the world over is now lower with the continents seemingly having gained more land, all because of the millions of gallons of water that had been flash-boiled. All that flash-boiled water has increased the humidity as steam mixes with the ash clouds to create a weather phenomenon called a hypercane. It is a super storm that resembles a hurricane, but is narrower when compared to other conventional hurricanes and rises taller than a thunderhead into the uppermost area of the stratosphere. They also pack winds as strong as a tornado's.

Hypercanes move. This one scours the still hot ocean to be fueled by its heat while churning up more massive waves. With the crater still molten hot as the lava continues to flow up and break through more of the hardened lava, another hypercane is formed and goes off elsewhere. Then another hypercane forms. Then another. And another. And another still. Soon, dozens of hypercanes move all across Earth, with many of them consolidating into an even more powerful storm system.

The megastorm does nothing to cool the temperature that rapidly rises the world over to cause global warming so intense that the perennial snows and ice the world over rapidly melt away. The worldwide heatwave, now some fifty degrees Fahrenheit away from the boiling point of water, makes life unbearable for any creature still outside. The only sea creatures that manage to escape being boiled alive are those in the other oceans, especially the deep sea ones.

Between the impact and the fires generated, Earth's entire stratosphere fills with ash and thick fire clouds, effectively turning midday into midnight, with only the global firestorms giving light. Hot scalding winds howl over the blast landscapes the world over with enough force to blow down whatever is left of ruined buildings. Sand is blown with enough force to scour flesh from bones as larger debris is turned into deadly projectiles. In spite of the now high humidity from the water that was evaporated by the asteroid, the wind prevents any rain from forming let alone falling. In time when the winds have weakened enough, it will turn into rain as it is supposed to.

There is no place on Earth that has not been devastated, and will continue to remain that way for years to come because it will take time for the air to cool and the wind to weaken enough. The global midnight will remain for at least ten years, and even then it will only transform into ever so gradually brightening twilight until enough of the ash has fallen away to allow the sun to shine through patches in the clouds. A sun that will be hazy to the viewer and will even burn since the ozone layer is now destroyed. It will cool over time though. The cooling will only be a respite as over time the cooling will continue unabated until another Ice Age happens, burying and pulverizing the remaining ruins beneath two miles of ice and snow in the temperate regions of the world, especially throughout the northern hemisphere.

For now, the world burns under a pitch-black sky. And all as those gods who had immigrated from the Special Area had been watching it all.

"Well now, that was interesting," Emroy mused.

"It's a shame that all of those wonderful creations were destroyed," Hardy said in a mock forlorn tone.

"Such knowledge these Humans had accumulated!" La gasped.

"And now it's all gone," Elange added sadly.

"Well, didn't you learn what you could from their achievements?" Duncan asked them. "I managed to get a grasp of what they had, and can probably teach it to whatever creatures that come to live in this world when it has recovered enough."

"That we have," La and Elange answered simultaneously.

"This world has simply undergone a painful birth into a new one," Miritta said.

"It looks like the sun won't shine for quite some time," Flare said while looking upward at the blackened sky.

"When the time comes, I'll help you clear the clouds, Flare," Zufmuut said. "And I'll bring order to this world."

"I'll do my part," Palapon said. "Even though one cannot seek revenge on a meteorite."

"Then let's make this our covenant to repair and make a new world for others in the distant future," Deldort said.

"There will be a beautiful music once the destruction is cleared away," Lunaryur said.

"And once we clean up and remake this world in our image," Hardy said. "I will have the Gate open once again to other worlds."

"You won't have it open back to the Old World will you?" Emroy asked.

"That would be too bland," Hardy answered. "And too soon I might add. Oh someday I may open it to there once again, but it won't be until an extremely long time has passed."

Earth will continue to be a hellscape for quite a long time. Once the destruction settles down, that is when the gods will begin Earth's revitalization. The Gate will appear once again, but into other worlds, in order to repopulate it with exotic animals and biological sapience.

To make Earth another Special Area.


End file.
